Watching paint dry

In my infinite lack of wisdom, I have decided that each and every room in the house needs a fresh coat of paint.  We've lived in this house for nine years, and our walls have a number of spackle blotches, crayon marks, fingerprints, and dents from things being dropped or accidentally kicked into them.  It is time to fix this situation.

Yesterday, Pig took Horse on a father-daughter date to have lunch and see a movie.  While they were gone, I decided to redo the accent wall in our living room.  I neglected to factor in how interesting this would be to Rooster and Pig Jr.

Rooster and Pig Jr. were excellent helpers while I was getting ready to paint.  They helped carry drop cloths, spread out all the painting supplies, and took turns handing me the tape as I prepared.  They giggled when I changed into my painting clothes ("Mommy, your clothes have paint on them already!  You're silly!") and scolded me for not using a cleaner stepstool ("Mommy, you should paint over all the paint spots on your ladder so it's pretty again.").

They gleefully stood back and watched me apply a coat of paint.  That's when things got complicated.  Turns out, a six-year old and a four-year old aren't very good at watching paint dry.  Who knew?

The kidlets had no clue that stepping on the drop cloths might put paint on their feet, which would then transfer it to wherever they stepped thereafter.  They kept walking close to the wet wall, and I'm convinced that the only reason for doing this was to make the vein in my forehead bulge.  They came up with any and every possible excuse to get as close as physically possible to every single drop of wet paint in our house.

By the time the rest of the family returned home from their movie, I was exhausted, more from trying to keep Rooster and Pig Jr. away from the drying paint than from the actual act of painting. 

Eventually, after about seven hours' worth of work, I showed the family the newly painted wall.  They all agreed that it looked exactly like it did before, and I'm still not sure if that means I did the job well or botched it up.