What's up with Preschoolers anyway?

Today was a typical day for us: school, play dates, housework, make dinner...the usual. Well just about 5 minutes before my dinner was ready to come out of the oven, Zander comes running to me crying because there is paint all over his clothes. Why is there paint all over his clothes you may be wondering...Well, while I was upstairs for no longer than 5 minutes, Zander thought it would be a good idea to bring a can of paint into the new play tent that was set up in the living room. Not only did he bring it in there, but somehow it got tipped over. The top wasn't hammered down well, so about 2 cups of oil-based primer spilled inside the tent and somehow landed on Zander as well. It got on his warm up jacket and his school jeans. I was past the point of being furious, I just wanted to get the paint out ASAP. I took the food out of the oven and dished up the kids, then drove like a mad women to Bi-mart (the only store around besides the grocery store) to track down some paint thinner. After reading a half dozen labels I came home with what I thought would do the trick. It said it was safe to clean natural and synthetic paintbrushes so I took a gamble and hoped it would be safe for the nylon tent as well. After calling my parents in a panic I headed outside in the dark of night and started in on the clothes first. It was clear that the jeans were a lost cause, so I moved on to the warm up jacket (40% polyester) Success! It was coming out. I managed to wipe away almost all of the paint, except near the zipper. Now on to the tent. By this time I noticed that I had gotten some paint onto my jeans, so I took a break and scrubbed them and changed into paint clothes. After about 30 minutes of pure turpentine bliss, I somehow got it all out. At least all that I could see by the light of the full moon. I will have to revisit it tomorrow when I can see better.

So my question remains unanswered: What is up with Preschoolers? When Natalie was this age she decided to color her almost new comforter with my lipstick. Another time I walked in on her only to be informed in a yet small voice "I cutted my hair mommy." These darling preschoolers who look so innocent have such innovative ways of destroying things. Never underestimate the power and might of the wee little ones, for they are capable of doing things unimaginable to us, the parents. Their reasoning is like no other. Don't even bother asking them why they do these things. They have a secret weapon: Ignorance. By using phrases such as "I don't know," (as they look up at us with their sad puppy dog eyes), we are forced to respond back with "what do you mean you don't know?" To which they reply with another "I don't know." We as parents are powerless against such logic (or lack thereof) and so we just send them to their room or time-out chair or whatever until we can think of what on earth we are going to do with them.

Never a dull moment around here. Hope your day was less messy than mine.