Time for Art

I don't know why it took me so long to start drawing and painting with Natalie... probably it was the potential mess that deterred me.  But this week I decided it was time.  I got her some crayons for her birthday, and the special, round crayon holders.  I would not recommend these at all... Natalie seemed to have much better luck with the cheapo normal crayons... she got the hang of it after just a few minutes of messing around with them, and I think practicing the normal grip will probably encourage her to hold other tools, (i.e. eating utensils) correctly.  

She spent a bit of time drawing with her dad, and now I can pretty much put her down with the crayons and paper and she's occupied for 20-30 minutes!  

I take them away when she stops drawing with them, and starts putting them in her mouth.  I think she might be getting another tooth, (she's got one about halfway up - I'll post a picture when I can get one of the elusive little bugger!)  

We also did a bit of finger painting!  I'm going to need to get special paper for this one I think because even photo paper seemed to absorb the paints too quickly, and not allow them to spread around too much.  

I even made my own finger paints which was a fun project in itself... didn't take much time at all, and saved me a trip to the store!  

I left the sugar out of the recipe because I didn't want the paints to be tasty enough for Natalie to want to eat them all... and she did manage to keep her hands out of her mouth for the process which was a nice change.  But I may have to try the recipe with sugar next time, because the colors were a bit dim, and maybe that's why.  Who knows.  But Natalie didn't seem to mind the pastels, and I guess they'll be appropriate for Easter artwork, so we'll use up what we've got first!