Ella and the Rainbow

When Brett ran off to, I mean chaperoned a trip to France during Spring Break, I was bummed out and tried to find some solace in shopping. While in Long's Drug that day, I came across Elmer's Paintastics -- they're a combo pen/paintbrush of sorts. Since it advertised "NO MESS! Instant Drying Paint!" on the packaging, I thought that it might just work for craft time with Ella. Well, it didn't work out quite as I had expected. They were a little difficult for her to learn how to use -- you've got to squeeze in a certain spot to release the paint to the brush. So, I "primed" them for her and then let her create. It's true that the paint dries relatively quickly, but when a child decides to paint her HANDS, I don't think that you can really have "no mess"! Plus, she started getting a little rough with the brushes -- you know, smashing them with force onto the paper as a 3-year old is wont to do. So yeah, I decided that we'd wait for her to get a little bigger before we tried those again.

Yesterday morning I felt optimistic and thought that perhaps Ella could handle using them now that it has been a couple of months. I did help start the flow of paint for her and re-demonstrated how to use them gently. She seemed to get the grasp of it, and I let her go to it. When I came back in the room a few minutes later, I was astonished to see that she had painted a rainbow all on her own. When I praised her work, she told me, "I made the bestest rainbow in the whole world for Daddy!" It was such a precious moment that I had to snap a picture...plus, you never know when a 3-year old will decide to obliterate her artwork! Thankfully, the drawing is still intact and hangs on our fridge.