Campfires and Creativity

These beautiful warm fall days just keep coming and we've been eating dinner outside most nights to enjoy them. Kelly builds a little fire, we all carry out plates out to the patio and we enjoy the mosquito-free outdoors. I've found that the kids spend longer at the dinner table when we're outside. Inside there's too many other things to return to - their room, their devices, their homework, etc. But outside, they sit and talk and enjoy looking at the fire. Last night I wanted to keep them longer so I brought out marsmallows so they'd stay and roast them. I feel like we never have enough time together when everyone is happy and getting along, so these moments are so precious. Everyone commented how much they enjoyed the time around the fire.

When Christian was Peter's age, Bella began preschool and we had some one-on-one time for the first time in his life. I remember using that time to do little projects with him like painting or building things. Christian always loved it, so today I decided to try painting with Peter. Honestly, I had my doubts about his readiness, but I figured it couldn't hurt. So I got out the paints and taped a big piece of paper to the table. I put a paint shirt of Bella's on him and began. He was fascinated as I dropped the different colors of paint on the paper and laughed when I put my finger in one of the blobs and moved it around on the paper. I encouraged him to try and that's when the happy feelings ended. He stretched out his hand, touched the paint, and shuddered. He looked at his colored hand and tried to rub it on his shirt and between his hands to get it off. I tried to help him see that the colors were fun and we'd wash later, but all my efforts were fruitless. I found this odd, because this is how he looks after every meal.

He doesn't seem to have any problem with dirty hands then. In fact, his favorite activity is to play in the dishwasher as I'm loading it, splashing all the nasty water all over himself and the floor. He's not shy about messy hands.

Nevertheless, I got him a brush and showed him how he could mix the colors with a brush instead. I demonstrated drawing letters and shapes and just swirling around. He seemd interested and took the brush from me, but after 3 seconds of swiping it back and forth, he was done. He dropped the brush on the table and refused to take it back up. I painted for him for a bit more and offered various options to him again, all to no avail. He was done. "Do you want to go wash your hands?" I asked. His affirmative grunt was his answer. Fine. We'll try painting again another day. Funny thing, though, after he was all cleaned up, he went over to the piano and 'asked' to play. I turned it on, sat him on the bench and let him play. He plinked around happily, bopping to various rythms and beats for 30 minutes. So, I guess he's more of a Mozart than a Picasso. I'm fine with that.