Baby Picasso In The House

For those who know me, you know that I love crafts and anything creative. As I sit here and look around the room, there are things I've created everywhere; paintings on the wall, chalkboard art, my favorite wreath, vintage finds re-purposed, ceramics that I painted while on vacation in Mexico....and it over flows throughout the house. So if you can imagine, I am thrilled that Brielle is starting to get to an age where she can participate with me.

Today I took her shirt off, put her in her booster seat, gave her a piece of paper and some paint on a paintbrush to see what she could create. The girl is a natural...just saying! And being a natural, naturally she did put some paint in her mouth. I will cut her some slack; she is only 11 months old. Haha

It was interesting for me to watch her. Seeing as this was her first time with a brush, I thought it would just immediately go into her mouth, but it didn't. I guided her hand down to the paper and as soon as she saw color, she seemed to kind of get it. After there was a significant amount of paint on the paper, she put the brush down and used her hands. That's the point where a bit of paint ended up in her mouth. I imagine it didn't taste very good because she only tasted it once more. Not too bad; 2 out of 3 colors in her mouth!

After she was done, I let the paint dry and made her creation into an owl. I think it turned out to be a very cute keepsake. I wrote our little story on the back, about this experience, so she can know how old she was and what we did together to create it. This is just the beginning of a lifetime of creations the we will do together.

Crafts and creating are a very important part of my life. I've always been creative. As a kid, I loved to color and draw and I hope to pass some of that along to Brielle. I think that children should be given the opportunity to express themselves through art, even though I know a lot of parents don't find it's their "thing." But in all honesty, it doesn't have to be your thing. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be enjoyable. If kids were to never color in the lines, yet they absolutely love coloring, then so be it. It's "their" perfect.

Holding her owl that she created.