Fingerpainting

I have resisted this form of artistic expression for a long time.  I bought fingerpaints a long time ago, but refused to let the girls do it.  Why?  The mess intimidates me and stresses me out.  But today, when Ellie brought the bottles of fingerpaint out, I thought, why not?  So, I stripped them down, got out big pieces of paper courtesy of the moving company, and squirted dabs of paint on their papers.  And then I watched, cringed, laughed, and enjoyed the scene.  They had so much fun. 

    

Ellie rubbed the paint around like it was soap.  Her hands were coated on all sides, her legs had dabs on them, and her stomach did not escape the mess.  Neither did the floor near her. 

Madison started out much more dainty, but grew braver with mixing, touching, and getting messy the longer they painted. 

Their paintings were masterpieces decorating our utility room as they dried.  (What I’ll actually do with them, I have no idea.) 

(I’ll need to get some “artist’s shirts” for them next time, since I didn’t plan ahead this time.)  I marched their painted bums straight up to the bathtub when we finished.  They enjoyed the bath almost as much as the paint.  The novelty of a bath mid-morning, I think.  I thought that with all that activity my morning would surely almost be done, but lo and behold, the clock said only 9:50am as I dressed them for the day.  Sometimes when you have nowhere to go, it is nice; other times, it can seem to take forever to get to the next thing.  We had a little snack, watched a little “Hello, Ktity!” and hung out til lunch time. 

This evening, Madison decided she wanted to learn how to wrestle.  Although I grew up wrestling with my brothers, it is hard to wrestle a person 1/10th the size of you.  It was a lot of fun rolling around and tossing her around, but not exactly wrestling…. unless you consider WWE style actual wrestling.  That happens to be Madison’s speciality because she literally launches herself off the ground and onto your waiting body.  You really have to be ready!  Maybe I’ll sign her up for some time with my brothers to actually learn the art of wrestling.