Making Art

A friend of mine, Lindsay was telling me about she let her 1 year old daughter finger paint in the bathtub on a canvas and how successful and fun it was. I immediately thought that this would create anxiety for me and she was saint for letting her child have fun while making a mess. Let's just say I panic at the thought of a mess. I think Jenna is the cleanest eater I know. This is also because I am standing over her to make sure nothing falls to the floor or gets on her high chair. It was a struggle for me to let her eat her birthday cake with her hands and let's just forget about the idea of spaghetti :) I know I need to loosen up and let her have fun with her food...but secretly I don't want to. 

I gave the finger painting idea some thought and having Lindsay tell me that it was easy to clean gave me some comfort and certainty that we wouldn't have a red or blue bathtub forever. I mentioned the idea to Jeff, who agreed that it would be fun for Jenna and maybe we could get some cool artwork. We ventured to Michaels one Saturday to buy the supplies. Jeff picked out some finger paint that was few dollars cheaper than the Crayola paints that were recommended. We looked them over and I think he saw the look of fear in my eyes that these paints would not wash out and wisely grabbed the Crayola finger paints. With the good paints in our cart and a pack of canvases we were on our way. 

Lindsay gave me some hints on how to do this project and one was put Jenna in a diaper. My thinking was "oh she doesn't need a diaper because she will be getting a bath afterwards!" I should have listened. Right when we put her in and started to give her the paint she peed. So we had to take everything out and wash out the tub then start over. Diaper will be put on next time.

Once the tub was dry we were ready to start the painting again. We decided to give Jenna one color at a time on a paper plate then we would hand her a canvas. We wanted her to make 3 of them (for the grandparents and us). 
So there we were...
Jeff: taking photos, handing me paints and the handling the canvases from tub to counter. 
Me: holding the paper plate with paint and guiding her hands from paint to canvas.

Jenna: trying to figure out what we are doing and more interested in what the canvas was

Me: showing Jenna how to put paint on her hands 
Jenna: trying to crawl out

 Me: panicking that she will get paint on the floor 

Jenna: sliding and slipping then falling in the tub because her hands are full of paint (no tears or injuries occurred)

Jeff: chuckling at me and snapping photos
Me: sweating and having to breathe into a bag (not really...but I thought about it)
Jenna: looking at us like we are crazy

In the end we managed to get 3 beautiful pieces of art and I actually look forward to doing it again. I realized that making a mess sometimes is good for me and let's Jenna have fun. Having a husband that encourages me to face my fears is also a good thing!

 P.S. Crayola Finger Paints is amazing and washes up great! No red or blue bath tub here.