Pen + Car Seat = It was Dawson?!?

It is not very often that I have a Dawson into mischief type story.  He is such a ruler follower that he doesn't often get in trouble.  He also seems to just know that certain things would not be a good idea.  A trouble radar if you will.  However, just recently he had one of those moments where all reason flies out the car window and he just couldn't resist the little idea that popped into his head.

Dawson was riding in the back seat behind Aubrey.  Usually, he is in the middle next to her but for some reason we switched Dawson and Emma around.  He was riding in the back with a blue pen and working on some Star Wars Mad Libs.  After we arrived everyone gets out and I am pulling stuff out of the back of the van and I noticed blue pen on the back of Aubrey's light tan car seat.  I climb into the trunk to look over and see that he has wrote all over the back of Aubrey's seat, and all over the seats next to him that were folded down!  He had wrote his name and stars everywhere. 

I admit that I was pretty surprised.  This is not something that Dawson usually does.  When I asked him about it he looked very guilty and started tearing up. I asked him why in the world he wrote all over the van and he, of course, said that he had no idea.  They never do know why they do these crazy things do they?  My disappointment in him was enough punishment for Dawson.  He felt terrible and apologized with out prompting.

It is amazing to me how each child is so different. I did not really even need to discipline Dawson because he was so remorseful.  Emma, on the other hand, is so carefree and in her own world that she often has no idea how her actions can affect others.  We have to discipline her differently to help her realize that she needs to be responsible for her actions.  Who knows what Aubrey will be like. 

In the end, I was able to get the pen out of the car seats.  I took hand sanitizer and poured it on each pen spot and let it sit for about five minutes.  I then took a wet rag and scrubbed.  The pen marks came out great!  So there is a little cleaning tip for you.  If you get pen marks on your car seats a little hand sanitizer will get it out.