misdemeanor for .....

....defacing of family property.  
At 4.25 years old, Ben received his first misdemeanor for misplaced coloring.  I know I'm lucky it took so long and that it could have been much worse and much earlier.
Unfortunately, he defaced what I hope will be a family heirloom and committed the crime just about 12 hours after I finished creating said treasure. 
I've been saving our holiday cards and letters with hopes to someday collage them in a book.  This year I had fewer holiday crafts on my plate and thanks to Ben having a sleepover at Tante's, I found myself with a clean craft table just waiting to be overtaken.

I use the word collage because this craft for me was far from a typical scrap-booking with cut-outs and stickers galore, but I love how it turned out and that we'll have all these special memories in one place.

I was just finishing an email to Aunt Christy when Ben entered the office beckoning me.  I asked him to wait 2 minutes while I finished and heard him climb up in a chair at the craft table behind me.  We had done this fun craft with neighbor Joey the afternoon before .....

                                                                                             and I was glad Ben was again checking out the craft space and even started thinking of what we could craft next.  In mere moments, I was jerked back to reality when I heard the tell-tale sound of the fat marker scraping against the linen cover of my book.  I jumped and screamed and hoped maybe, just maybe, the lid was still on.  Alas, Ben had found the one thing I hadn't put away from the previous days' crafting and had quickly discovered his next project.  

My shriek brought him almost immediately to tears and my ensuing "tears," caused a breakdown and long talk for both of us.  I always want Ben to feel welcome to create and especially want to foster development of writing and coloring since these are not his favorite tasks or strong suits.  I think that in the end he understood what are and aren't appropriate places to color and I know that next year when I pull the album out of the Christmas box, I will look upon those scribbles and smile.