Mom Fail

Z’s daycare is great about doing sensory activities to develop motor skills for the infants and toddlers. No kid is exempt from these fun classroom activities—even the babies get out there and participate, which I think is great. A couple of weeks ago they finger painted. When I picked Z up from school I heard all about how much fun she had saw the photographic evidence proving she enjoyed painting. Her painting wasn’t too shabby for 8-month-old either. She still had remnants of blue and red paint in her hair and ears, but hey, that’s life. I decided we would recreate this fun activity at home during the weekend. I’m a big art lover and thought “Oh great! This will develop Z’s appreciation for art and we will be able to hang her artwork around the house. Maybe we can even create paintings to give to family members for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year.” Hmm, right Natalie.

Our Parents as Teachers (this is such a great program!) lady gave me a homemade recipe for paint using ingredients you already have at your house. The recipe is:

1 cup flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

Food coloring

Clear plastic squeeze bottles from craft store

Mix everything together in a large bowl and divide the paint into the bottles. Add food coloring drops and shake well until mixed. The paint won’t dry out and you’ll have some for next time.

I mixed the paint together and R set up the painting studio in the living room by laying out a big cardboard box and throwing sheets of drawing paper on top. We stripped Z to her diaper and drizzled paint on the paper. She went nuts! It was so fun! Until….she ate some. It was so salty that she started choking and gagging. We gave her a drink of water and she resumed her artistic creativity. Then she ate it again! This time she melted down because she had eaten a large chunk and couldn’t get the salty paint off her tongue. She was inconsolable. It probably didn’t help that she was tired because she hadn’t napped at all and it was hot outside. The salt granules made cleanup hard and Z had to take a bath. She usually loves bath time but was fed up with us at this point so that was pretty tortuous as well. Bottom line: don’t implement activities when your kid/husband/you need a nap, and consider the age-appropriateness of the activity before you start. Those daycare teachers make everything look so easy. I’m constantly amazed at how well they do with eight kids under two years old in their classroom. I know it’s their career but still. I’d need a Starbucks in the parking lot if I were a preschool teacher.

From this little activity we did get five nice paintings that we’re going to do something with eventually. Right now they’re in our closet because the cats were licking them. Two days after the incident I realized Zoe still had salt paint in her left ear. So we need to work on thorough cleaning during bath time too.