Mixing it up

Since the two of us are cooped up in this apartment a lot lately, I've been going to the dollar store and getting little crafts projects, or puzzles, etc. for us to do in the evenings. Brent loves the puzzles, and he's gotten to the point where he can do them in entirety even the first time for the 25 piece ones. The 63 piece puzzles are a little trickier, but he still does them with minimal help.

He still does that thing where, when he's concentrating on something, he'll make an "O" shape with his mouth and his tongue darts in and out like a snake. I'll have to get that on video sometime - it's really bizarre.

Anyways, the other day I got this little train piggy bank (or money bank? since it's not a pig?) and it came with some paint and a paintbrush so you could decorate it yourself. So the first part of the evening was spent telling him every 2 minutes that we would do it after dinner. Gosh I just never get tired of that! [best sarcastic voice]

Finally he scarfed down the last of his food and we set to work. I say "we" because these things tend to be very hard for me. I know that I cant stifle his creativity, but his instinct is to always mix all the colors together when he paints, resulting in all of his artwork taking on a quality I like to call "mud". There they were, four beautiful colors: blue, green, yellow and red - vibrant and ready to turn that white train into a masterpiece. And yet I knew soon they would all be one nice shade of...well...caca.

So he starts by taking a big blob of blue and painting the hole that the money was supposed to go in. We take a break to clear that out, so that the bank might someday function.

Then he places a large amount of paint into the funnel cup, which I predict silently will take maybe 5 days to completely dry (we're on day 3 and still it's mucky). And then he gets down to business. For each stroke, he first places the brush in the blue paint, then the green, then the red, then the yellow. "I'm mixing it mommy!!," he squeals delightfully as sweat starts to build on my brow. I don't know why this should bother me - I try so hard to let him create as he wishes. But the artist within me always fights it. I've loved to paint all my life, and it seems like such a strange way to do things.

Over and over...each time dipping it into each color before applying it. Luckily after a few minutes they were all the same color, and it didn't hurt quite as much to watch. I get numb, I suppose.

But what do I know - have you seen my latest portrait? Maybe he left off my mouth so I won't criticize him while he's painting!