turning our blue day red

i am certain that the above scene would have made marko more than a little nervous. him and i don't see eye to eye on the use of paints in the house. i see where he is coming from, why risk such an enormous and unnecessary mess? he says i grab too tightly to hippy ideals. i am not sure i would use the word hippy, but i have been known to utter something about allowing the freedom to express ones self in an artistic way, even if it means splatters on the wall. i should back up and say that i am all about expressing oneself in all kinds of ways, not just artistic, although i won't lie, i get a certain type of joy from seeing my kids express themselves with colour. it wasn't that crazy anyway, there was newspaper covering the floors and the paint was as washable as they as come.

besides, i seriously contemplated, albeit only for a moment, having them both get down on the floor and finger paint together. i would have done it, but the logistics of the after huge mess bath got in the way. that good time may have to wait until spring.

what happens when you leave your 2 year old with his markers, and the baby, for only a minute to go grab your coffee because you only got three hours sleep again.

a little more red, over here! he said

if you have been perusing the flickr account at all then you know that cohen has been doing a little finger-painting lately. i made him an apron back in november and then went out and bought some tubs of goo and it has been good times ever since. sometimes he gets bored after 10 minutes and tries to stand up and run away with his hands flailing in front of him, looking for a blank white wall, but sometimes he can sit and play with the paint and the tub for an hour or more, painting and then repainting the canvas over and over. today was just such an occasion. he stacked the containers on top of each other "counting" as he went along and then dove into the paper, his elbows covered in crimson and blue as he swayed from side to side making his mark. the final product is what you see up there in the new header, or at least part of it anyway.

i think art is such a great thing to do with kids and ever since he was tiny i have been waiting for the time when he can create. we have dabbled in crayons a little but they don't seem to hold his interest the way paint or pencils do, so tomorrow i am going to go and buy him some pencil crayons and maybe some washable markers as well.

i guess this means that soon i will be one of those moms who has their children's art all over the house (and the blog), constantly exclaiming how wonderful the use of colour is (and it will be, you wait).

don't say i didn't warn you.