Painting With Tyler

I rarely do art projects with my boys. Why? Because I always have this fun image in my head of how it's going to go, and it never ends up that way. I picture myself calmly helping one of them create a work of art. Instead, I am rushing around picking this up, cleaning this, and in today's case...washing paint out of a certain toddler's mouth.

Yup. Yesterday, I purchased a set of mini paint cups with lids and brushes. I was super excited. And, since we're going through a nap transition for Tyler, I was trying to buy us time before putting him down for his morning nap. I thought, "Oh, a quick paint project will be a good idea." So, I got us all set up, and the first thing Tyler did was pick up the paint brush, draw one stroke on the paper, and then stuck the brush into his mouth. "AHHHH!" Was my response. I picked him up, and then didn't really know what to do. Ah, the sink! Wait, no, paper towels first! Ahh! I don't know! I stuffed paper towels into his mouth, trying to wipe out the thick amount of paint, all with him jerking his head side-to-side. I did have to pin him down on the floor at one point. Finally, when we were all done with that, I walked him back to the paint, picked up a brush, and asked him if he'd like to try that again. He shook his head. We continued on with the painting, making more of a mess, but no more paint in the mouth.

And, finally, we have Tyler's first frameable piece of artwork.

By the way, when I first did the paint-on-the-hands thing with Vincent, he couldn't wait for me to wash the paint off. With Tyler, he kept trying to paint more on.