Van Gogh in Training

I enjoy painting as a hobby, but I don't get to do it as much as I used to pre-Eli, perfectly fine because I would rather do something with him than paint any day. The other day though I had a few canvases that I was trying to finish up and Eli spotted me painting. One reason I don't paint as often as I did before is because now I always have a little helper that wants to help me paint. This is okay every now and then, but sometimes it's more mess than I want to tackle.

He came up to me and said, "I pain!" (I paint) and then to top it off he added a please at the end. How could I resist? My friend, Nicki, gave me a great tip for when kids want to paint. Give them a blank canvas and let them paint. When they want to paint again, paint the canvas white and give it back to them. Isn't that a great idea? I gave Eli a small canvas and let him go to work. He loved mixing all the colors. It was actually a great teachable moment because he got to practice his colors and get to see what happens when you mix certain colors together. The only problem was the paint. I only had acrylic paint on hand and that doesn't wash out of clothes. He actually was very careful though. (Daddy helped supervise making sure paint didn't wind up everywhere in my kitchen...thanks, Daddy!) I just have to make it a point to pick up some washable paint for our next art session :) I love that I get to share my love of painting with my little guy, even if it does mean more clean up for Mommy.