A mum was horrified to discover her ‘feral’ toddler had smeared red melted wax across her hallway walls and carpet.
Emma Smith, 30, said the place looked like a ‘murder scene’ as cheeky toddler Archie got to work with his sister’s makeup brushes and some melted wax.
The one-year-old dipped the brush into the wax burner and smeared the hallway with the red goo that ominously dripped down the walls.
Not content with just using a six-metre stretch of wall as a canvas for his artwork, Archie flung dollops of wax into the carpet too.
Mum-of-three Emma, from Fettercairn, Aberdeenshire, became suspicious that it was too quiet as she cooked in the kitchen.
When she poked her head through the door, she discovered the bloody-looking trail and a grinning Archie.
Clearly he was unrepentant.
Emma said: ‘They say silence is golden but not when Archie is around. He’s a feral child.
‘It looked like a murder scene, I came running out of the kitchen and he just stood and laughed with a makeup brush in his hand.
‘Even now when I ask him “why have you painted mummy’s hall?”, he just smirks and laughs.’
Archie had used the melted wax from a plug-in burner, meaning the cheeky tot wasn’t at risk from burning himself.
Emma added: ‘I have the plug-in burners everywhere, but the one he used was in the hallway.
‘My daughter Angel ushered Archie away while steam was coming out of my ears.
‘I had to go back to the kitchen, turn off the food I was cooking, and then had to get it off the wall.
‘I had to wait until the wax had dried then spent 45 minutes using a hairdryer to re-melt it and a cloth to scrub it off my wall.
‘It formed thick clumps in the carpet but I managed to lift it out.
‘When I told my husband Stuart he just said “well that’s a stupid place to put a burner” – he was a great moral support.
‘When he found out it had been on the walls he just asked “are we going to have to redecorate?”.
‘I bleached the wall to remove the remaining marks on the walls but because I can see a tint of colour, we’ll have to redecorate.
‘The burner has since been removed.’
Emma said this is the worst incident out of a catalogue of mischief Archie has got himself into and fears what’s to come.
Emma said: ‘Archie is very free-spirited and is always up to no good.
‘We live on a farm and have a small fence between our house and next door and he has a habit of digging underneath the fence, like a dog would do, to escape into next door’s garden.
‘Archie’s also escaped into the fields, got behind the shed, and dug up flowers.
‘He’s that kid that if it was someone else’s you’d laugh about it but when it’s your own, you can’t.’
As Archie turns two next month, Emma dreads what escapades he’ll get up to as he hits the ‘terrible twos’.
Emma said: ‘It’s probably the worst thing he’s done to date, but I imagine there’s more to come.
‘We’re heading toward terrible twos territory and I’m dreading it, Archie is full of surprises. He definitely keeps me on my toes.’
Naughty Archie.
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