Art 'Fails'

Remember when I got aaaaalllllllll excited about liquid watercolors? Well Lily Ruth's paternal grandmother is an artist, so she thought that buying art  supplies for birthday presents was a great idea! The Artist Known as Lily received 4 glorious colors and 'bingo markers' (tubes with sponges on the end) to use with them.

I could hardly wait to try them out. When Lily was ready to paint, I filled 4 tubes, grabbed a piece of nice watercolor paper and sat her down in her chair. I reached for the camera as she grabbed the first color. 'Just dab it, Baby.' 'Like this?'... she half-heartedly poked it at the paper 5 or 6 times. Then, before I could so much as blink, she announced 'didn't work, Mama! Open it!' and just like that, there was green liquid watercolor everywhere. I scooped her up and dumped her in the tub. Then I took these...

Then I cleaned up the mess and put the paints away... methinks that we need to reintroduce paintbrushes before we try those again...

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Ya'll know how we love window markers, right? Well, we do. They're awesome.

Earlier this week, we were window drawing while waiting for Daddy to come home. I was also making dinner, so I kept excusing myself to check on noodles and sautee vegetables. Which led to this...

Please note the bathing suit top worn jauntily around her neck ;-) She is learning to dress herself AND she adores her bathing suit.

Now, body art wasn't my original plan, but honestly, what's the harm? So when she grinned and aimed her marker in my direction, I simply laid down the 'no drawing on Mama's clothes' rule, and let her have at it. Check ME out!

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For me, a big part of parenting is learning not to kill the joy. Learning to allow things that I would normally avoid (like things that are messy or annoying) simply because they are FUN. Learning to look into my daughter's eyes and acknowledge that her experience is just as valid as mine. Learning to proudly wear marker tattoos.