Painting with Paige

It's Wednesday afternoon. Dance has been cancelled due to a power outage, Paige is asleep and Kingston Parish's Brunswick Stew is thawing for dinner. I have been given extra hours tonight and I know exactly how I want to spend them... with my mug of hot chocolate and laptop. It is amazing how long it has been since I read or wrote a blog. Its also been quite awhile since I created any artwork.

I have created art with Paige, though, which is better by far. Messier.... but better. On a cold day in  February P and I were out of activities. We had read every book multiple times, made the sound of every stuffed animal in her basket and chased the dogs around and around the house. Not sure what to do next, I stripped her down to her diaper, covered the floor with old towels and dropped a squirt of red tempera paint on the paper in front of her. She delicately dipped her pointer finger into the blob of paint and slid it acros the paper creating a red streak. She looked at me, surely surprised to not hear me tell her no. The second time she tapped the paint a couple times before spreading it. And the the third time, she leaned forward and put her entire hand into the paint, spreading it and moving it, squealing as she did. As she worked I continued to hand her papers with more paint blobs. She painted a total of five, and then finished by painting her diaper, legs and stomach. Once she decided it was time to get up and start walking I decided it was bath time.

After her artwork dried I made them into Valentines for her father, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I'm sure this is only the start of more handmade Valentine's Cards to come!