Art Party?

Neither one of the boys seem to be big on creating - at least not in the traditional sense, at least not yet. They're not much for coloring, and when last we tried it, Play Doh held ZERO interest for them. Knowing that, I'm not exactly sure why I thought that they'd get a kick out of finger painting. Chalk it up, I guess, to the facts that I HAD finger paints and that I needed a new activity to add to our regular routine of playroom, park, poor-man's-trampoline-in-the-den.

For the boys' first painting "adventure," I stripped them down to their drawers (having lived with Freddie long enough to assume this would be necessary). I then laid out three half-size pages of poster board, dotting one with three dollops of paint and assuming the others would be used, one each, by the boys to create masterpieces that'd hang in our home - or, maybe, Daddy's office! - for years to come.

"It was their FIRST GO at it, if you can believe that," I'd tell people, as they commented on my boys' remarkable artistry.


But.

That's not exactly how things played out.

Neither boy understood my instruction of "Paint HERE," even after I demonstrated it multiple times. About six seconds after they'd been out there, Freddie stepped on the pile of paint and wiped out, ending up wearing paint on way more than just his fingers. Then, he tried to EAT the paint, prompting a calm-but-cautious, just-in-case phone call to 1-800-CRAYOLA where a VERY helpful lady assured me all of their products are non-toxic.

Non-toxic or not, Freddie's "mees" was just about more than Jones could handle. So, after Jones practiced some of his Wildcat cheers (specifically, "C-A...;" we're hoping he'll have the "...T-S" down in time for football season), we headed in for an unplanned bathtime that was prompted by the fact that, ultimately, Freddie preferred painting on himself to painting on the paper I gave him.

Maybe playrooms and parks aren't so bad after all.


(The backstory to these videos is that, the nite before, I'd turned on my UK Pep Band music, which Jones hasn't heard, since Draft Nite in June. As soon as he heard it, he said the "C-A..." of "C-A-T-S" completely on his own ... AND on the right rhythm. I tried, unsuccessfully, to get it on video as it happened, but of course, I couldn't. I'd thought maybe I could if I played the Pep music while they painted. Instead, Jones was more focused on Freddie than the music. I did, however, eventually get his "C-A" on video, though it wasn't on rhythm. Oh, well. 

Here's a transcript of what Jones is saying at the beginning of the first video: 

"Oh. He mees. He mees on da piggies. He mees! He mees on da piggies! Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. He mees. I keen up, Mama. I keen up.")