Since moving to Texas, I've become a part-time stay-home-mom. I've never had the luxury of spending a random weekday with my kiddo before (well, except when she was home sick from daycare and instead of enjoying the togetherness, I was usually frantically trying to balance my workload while juggling a crying, snotting child on my hip). Anyway, I've been searching for stay-home-mom activities to do with my energetic little two year old. And my first idea was ART!
I moved the Ikea table outside. I stripped Lela down to her diaper. I limited the paints to only 2 colors and 2 brushes. Then, I sat back and watched. If nothing else, my preschool art book already imparted a valuable lesson: It's the process, not the product, that counts.
At first, Lela loved pushing the paint around on the paper. She painted ambidexterously - red brush and paint with the right hand, blue brush and paint with the left.
She looked up in surprise when she accidentally brushed some paint on her tummy. Would she be in trouble for being messy? I had to reassure her several times that it's OK to be messy while painting.
Once she realized it was OK, she started deliberately painting her own belly, glancing up every so often to make sure I was not going to scold.
She loved the feel of the paint (or the brushes?) on her body. She closed her eyes and rubbed the now-purple brush all the way up her neck.
I started to worry that there was a hallucinogenic slipped in her milk at lunch. Seriously, there was some hippie-peace-love stuff going on. Naturally, I ran inside for the video camera.
Some days, I worry that I'll regret slowing down my career or that I won't be a good full-time mom. But on days like today, all I can think is how incredibly lucky I am to have the time to make these memories.
Next week...we'll play with glue.
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