Little Picassos

Brace yourselves for the cuteness...

But let's back up.  I'd seen this idea all over the internets, and thought: awesome!  Babies' first art project!  I bought the paint and saved it up for a day when I'd really need it.  That day came last week, when Tyson was super busy, culminating in a day where he was gone not only all day, but also all evening, leaving me alone for all naps, all meals, and all of bedtime.  (Dun dun dunnnnn!!!)  Time to break out the big guns.

I put the paint up during their afternoon nap.  (Not that this really needs a "tutorial", but I filled freezer bags with some washable kids paint, and taped them to the patio door with clear packing tape.  Originally I just taped down the top and bottom, but they kept picking at the edges, so now all four sides of each bag are taped down.)

Brooklyn woke up first, and got some extra playtime in because Caden napped for two hours (!!!) that day.  (Whose baby are you, and what did you do with my Caden?!?)

I brought her downstairs and she immediately grinned and pointed to the patio door.

But then I put her down in front of it and she was all...

...unimpressed.

She crawled back to mama, being just a liiiiiittle unsure of these bags of bright colors invading her space...

But then...

Maybe I will go investigate...

Lol.  Nope.  And she laid in front of the door for awhile.

(Meanwhile my inner monologue is all "Touch it!  Just touch the bags!  You're going to love it!  Come on, I've been planning on this for weeks!")

Before finally gathering up the courage...

...to touch one of the bags...

...with one little finger.

Leading to the discovery that, hey!  This is pretty cool, after all!

(She had to touch every bag with a solitary pointer finger first, before she would deign to touch them with her entire hand.)

Serious artist is serious.

(Experimenting with other body parts.  Umm...lip prints?)

Finally, Caden woke up.  And I thought, "Surely he will love this immediately.  He has no impulse control whatsoever and always barrels head-first into everything!"

Nope, he sat in front of the door for awhile, too.  Apparently in awe of Brooklyn and all her new found artistic skillz.

But, soon enough, he got into it, too.

"Heh, this is pretty cool."

It kept them entertained for awhile, and for the rest of the day they would go off and play and return to the patio door to do some more painting.  The bags are still hanging up, and continue to hold their attention periodically.

This one is definitely a win.  And now I can't wait until the day that I can set them loose with some "real" art supplies...just as soon as they stop putting everything in their mouths. And I cover everything we own in a layer of plastic.  Or maybe we'll just use them outside. But THEN...look out, world.