My Own Picasso

I have a funny, fun, awesome story to share about my little one today.

So, yesterday we made a trip to Wal-mart. I was over in the craft section grabbing up their clearanced stuff since they're rearranging the store right now and putting just about anything on clearance in order to make more room. I found a lot of good things: $1 rolls of ribbon, $6 Glue Gun, $3 bolts of cloth for my next project... Lots of good stuff. I was really happy with it.

Anyway, while I was in the neighborhood I noticed the acrylics were only $1 each as well. So I got to thinking... I wanted to paint designs on the fan-blades of Rune's new ceiling fan. I'd bought spray paints and was going to do a swirled pattern of pink, purple and blue. But when I sat down to draw the pattern out on the blades, I got a little carried away/creative/excited... and I ended up with a more detailed set of images.
I liked them a lot... but spray paints wouldn't do. So I looked at the acrylics and decided to grab a pack of brushes and the colors I needed.
Rune, in the cart, picked up each color as I tossed it in and said "What's this??"
So I explained "Those are paints."
"Paints? WHY?"
"Because I'm going to paint your fan."
"You're gonna paint my fan? Oooh..."
She played happily in the cart of course with ribbons and paints and such to arrange.

This morning I woke up to a hilarious ordeal. The kind that really challenges your parenting instincts.
I woke up and Rohan had gotten up with Rune a bit earlier... set her up a movie, then laid on the couch to rest a bit more... and apparently he dozed off and she.... got creative.

So you can imagine our bemused smiles and barely contained laughter when she came and got us, dragged us back to the bedroom and proudly  showed us this:

She explained, calmly, happily: "I painted the fan!" Then, grabbing the pink paint with a brush stuck into it, she went on to explain, "I tried to paint the handle but my brush is done." The bristles were worn off the brush completely. 

So the question was raised... how do we handle this? How can we possibly punish her for getting creative and doing something she thought was exactly what the paints were intended for?

Instead, we laughed. We laughed and smiled and congratulated her on her work. The last thing I would ever want to do is crush my child's creative tendencies. So we told her how much we loved the fan... And then we sat down and explained that paints are not something she is allowed to play with all alone and that she should get us if she wants to paint so we can help her. She was happy. We were happy. No harm done. The paint was water-solluable so it came out of the carpet easily where she'd dripped. 

So my lesson is learned: Don't leave the paints on the table even if they are still plastic sealed... it won't stop her. Water-solluable is your friend... And a pretty fan never hurt anyone.

But most of all: 

Anything you say to your toddler can and will be interpretted creatively given the chance!

I love my life!

Arsh