Today the little guy had an opportunity to express himself artistically.  My wife is incredibly talented with paint and drawing, whereas my artistic skills stopped in first grade when my teacher told me I needed coloring lessons (true story).

So my wife got him some toddler crayons and some finger paints, while I picked up a roll of paper and the keep-him-clean outfit (ikea for both things).  Thus, this morning we loaded up the table, ready for 2 rounds: first round coloring, second round painting (gotta go in order of messiness).

Coloring was a hit after the little guy realized he can make a mark on the paper when he moves his hand while holding the oversized crayon.  Not surprisingly, the marks on the paper indicate he was just moving his arms in a “back and forth” curved motion with himself at the center point.  He also learned that while they might be non-toxic, the crayons do not taste good, so I am happy that was a lesson learned early.  Then, it was on to painting.

I should point out that I have noticed that the little guy does not like having his fingers messy.  Juice from eating clementines?  No problem.  A load of red pasta sauce, or worse yet, yogurt?  No way.  So, I was eager to see if he would be able to look past that when painting.  As it turns out, once he found out it was not tasty, he was not excited about finger painting.  So basically after 12 seconds he was over it, despite my wife’s urging.

So, we found out today that it will be crayons over painting in the future.  On the one hand as a guy who does not like messes, I am mildly relieved.  But on the other hand, I kind of wish he liked the painting more or at least equally to crayons.  Maybe after we give it a couple more tries he will warm up to it.  Until then, I better keep tabs on those crayons – we just painted his bedroom walls white. 😉