Fall Crafts and Water Colors

At least once a day, I try and get Dresden to agree to craft time or art time. One day, I decided we should make some spiders in honor of Halloween. I was pretty sure we were both going to asphyxiate on Elmer's Glue after all was said and done, but it turned out okay. Dresden is obsessed with glue now, everything else was sort of an after-thought, but putting more and more glue on the felt was of paramount importance. It was really fun to watch him be so serious and focused about squeezing the glue, though, so I let him go to town with it.

The first (and last of the tiny ones) drop of glue

Smooshing the google eyes

The glue obsession has taken over

Adding the legs

Our ragamuffin spider! :-D

After the Elmer's fumes were just too much to bear, we switched to water colors which are his new favorite art form. Sometimes I get worried because I read about other 2 and a half year olds who are able to draw perfect faces and all the facial features, and Dresden just does not do that. He can draw circles (well, things that resemble circular shapes), and straight lines, but he doesn't really have the concept of eyes, noses, mouths, etc. Still, I have decided to let go of that anxiety and say to myself, he's just an abstract artist, that's his forte. Some artists drew faces (Van Gogh, Monet), other people drew lines and splatter paint (Picasso, Pollack). As long as he's not canning cat feces and calling it art, he can be whatever kind of creative genius he wants to be. Logic tells me that eventually, he will be able to draw something resembling a face, but until then, I just won't rush it.

Squeezing out excess water...he had a little trouble with the order of operations here, as he would squeeze out the water and then re-dip the brush in the water again, but oh well!

He must be going through a brown and green phase, cuz today after his nap he came to me and said "Mama, we going to have a pahty tonight! It's go'be (goingtobe) a bwown and gween pahty!"

Chattering!

Filming the boy paint his masterpiece

Watching him paint is another one of those "sweetest moment" memories for me. He is so "in the zone" when he does it, which is so very different from how he usually is (read: crazy and all over the place climbing walls). I hope the art he does with us as a little boy will help build a foundation for him to love art and, if he can, create art, his whole life long. How else can I live vicariously through him as a famous painter, right? ;-)

Love,

Cassie