Thursday, March 19, 2009

We Love Fingerpaint!


I have the problem that because Bella is so far behind Benjamin developmentally, that I often discount what things she can do and put her in my mental "baby" category - ie. unable to participate in most activities I do with Benjamin. So, up until now craft time has been exclusively during Bella's nap time. But now she's down to only one nap a day and it's usually during Benjamin's nap time (when fate is smiling on me) thus, it was time for a paradigm shift. So, today's craft time came after nap time and I decided to start small - fingerpaint. Fingerpaint, though technically non-toxic, still seemed like a poor source of nutrition (and I knew with 100% certainty she'd try to eat it) so I opted for a more food-based paint. Could use pudding, but that would require me to make some, and my philosophy on craft time is that it should be fun for everyone - not just them - and cooking is in all cases very un-fun. I know - pudding - it's milk and powder - how hard is it? Don't judge. I'm sure there's things you struggle with that I don't, so let's just let it go. So instead, I decided to pull out the unused frosting containers from my halloween party. They were still perfectly viable - further proof that frosting is really best scraped off of the cake rather than ingested. Bright colored goo in pink, red, blue, and yellow. I put some on Bella's booster seat tray and some on Benjamin's placemat and let them loose. Bella got right into it. She mixed and smacked and clapped her hands. She'd actually been "painting" for quite a while before the taste testing began.


And yet nothing got in her hair or anywhere else. I was impressed. Not like Benjamin's first food experiment:


She seemed to have a great time. I really need to stop automatically counting her out.


Some cute Benjamin pics from the past couple days:



He's really becoming quite imaginitive. It's fun to see.

4 comments:

Loni said...

You are such a fun mom! Your kids are lucky to have you.

Megan said...

What a fun idea! I'll have to try that with Sandy!

Thanks for your comment on our blog. Yes, we are so lucky Sandy is a good eater. Hopefully it lasts. Her spit up has almost completely stopped now that she has moved to solid foods. Hooray!

Brooke said...

OH! Bella is getting so big -- and I love Benjamin's dress-up outfits. May I complement him on how coordinated he is? He's got the saftey glasses with the chainsaw, and the pirate patch with the pirate stuff. My boy would do something more along the lines of "pirate patch with chainsaw, tutu, and lab coat." 'Cause he's craaaaazy.

Jennica said...

oh man! i really wanna come and visit you guys and see your house! i can't believe i never ever get to see you guys!! :(. sad.! the kids are getting sooo big! i sure do love them and i hope they remember me!! michelle you decorate so cute... i can see benjamins bed in the background...ahhh!!! i wanna come stay there!!! hehe how you guys doing??