Coloring

I'm not sure when I first gave Anna crayons but it was probably not too long after her first birthday. I'd put her in her high chair and taped a piece of paper to her tray. She'd play for a little while but didn't have a very good attention span for it. She'd threaten to put the crayons in her mouth and then throw them when she was done and wanted out. I didn't push the issue too much since she was so young, but I was definitely looking forward to a time when we could work on creative projects together.

She gave up the high chair about six weeks ago so I've been hesitant about using crayons since we don't have a good place to use them. But after our play date with Lisa and Aly last week, I decided to give it a shot. Not only did she seem to really enjoy it at Aly's house, but she really did a good job covering the majority of paper with scribbles and swirls. Also, most of the artwork she's done in 'camp' has also shown a vast improvement from her high chair work.

So I taped some paper down on the slatted table we've been using for meals since Anna gave up the high chair. She had a ball - used all of the colors, held the crayon well and impressed me with her attention span for it. However, I wasn't very excited when it came time to clean up. It's one thing to wipe up banana or juice spills from this table but not too easy to get crayon marks out of it. So I found a used play table and chairs from a woman on Craigs List. It's in great shape and is a lot easier to clean up. Anna colored on it for the first time yesterday and she didn't want to stop when Pam came to play. Poor timing on my part, but I get so excited when I see Anna take an interest in something, especially something creative!

I think I'm going to take a portion of yesterday's coloring and turn it into a card for a special occasion down the road or maybe even make something for Dave's aunt and uncle whose birthday party we're going to this weekend. Do you think they'll appreciate it?! Well, not as much as I, but I'm sure it'll still bring a smile!