Proud Art Mama?

So Jenelle LOVES to color! That, eating, and doing puzzles pretty much fill about 90% of her day (amazingly enough, she has yet to get bored of the same puzzles day in and out). But back to the coloring – she’s getting good. She does these hilarious little smiley faces, which she’s incredibly proud of, writes letters (probably on accident) which make her crazy excited when she notices, and has even begun to color within the lines. To the right is a creepy monochromatic example:

Here’s where I go from being proud of her blossoming art skills to totally speechless. Yesterday while she was coloring with her markers I told her I was going to just run out and get the mail. In the time it took me to run across the street and back (literally 30 seconds), she colored every square inch of white on the high chair. With red marker. Not sure what she was thinking. Or how she did it that quickly. After cleaning it, I laid down on the couch and told her I really needed a 2 minute nap, and please, please, be quiet (has that ever worked for any of you??????) After turning on every musical toy within sight, she announced a desperate need to use the bathroom. Sitting up frustrated, I noticed everything else that she’d done while I crossed the street – mainly, the carpet and the wall. She’s totally never done anything like this before and I am so baffled. First – why did she do it? The other day when she did something she knew she shouldn’t have done, I asked her why she did it and she said, “because you left the room and you weren’t here.” Honestly she said that to me. So that probably sums that up. But as to how she went from peacefully coloring princess pupils to covering my house in red marker … I mean honestly, she must have gone very suddenly insane and colored everything in sight as frantically as possible. So my question for all you moms is, when I am more experienced at this mothering thing, will I understand what my kids are thinking? Or what makes them tick? Or will I at least have any idea what to say when they’re crazy? Oh and I have learned that I am not made out of the same serious art material as my professor that told me he was so proud of his kids artistic expression when they first drew on the walls in his home that he took pictures and couldn’t punish them at all. I guess I’m just not that hard core.