'nowy Day & Painting with a Toddler

Mom and I appear to be on the same wavelength today thinking about writing blog posts. I've had a mostly Toddler time kind of day since we had a snow day at work. Apparently 'S's are harder to say that other letters. 'nowy Day is how Tyler says "Snowy Day" which is one of his current favorite books. It's been a fun and relaxing day during today's 'nowy day. We've read, colored, danced, painted, built Lego towers, and played trains. I even baked a cheddar and apple bread from a recipe in my new baking book by Paul Hollywood who I enjoy watching on "The British Baking Show." It was fun having to weigh ingredients since the book isn't revised for an American audience. The bread has lots of cheese in it which sort of melts into the bread. Yum. (or 'umm in toddler speak)

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Adventures in Painting with A Toddler

​Key things to remember are Preparation, Patience and Paying Attention. Do NOT attempt painting with a toddler, if you will be heartbroken, if something in the painting area gets stained with paint.
Must haves:

• Clothes that can get stained - yours and Mr. or Miss Toddler's
• Floor covering that can get stained
• Table covering that can get stained (seeing a theme yet?)
• Coverings for anything in the room you don't want stained
• Damp old washcloth or paper towels
• Rag(s) for sopping up paint and water
• Lots of blank paper
• Several sturdy brushes
• Washable non-toxic paint
• Paint tray or paper plate
• Sink handy
• Something to scoop out paint such as small spatulas or plastic knives
• Enough time for set-up, painting, and clean up (potentially including a bath)
• Space to dry paintings
• A booster seat Mr. or Miss Toddler can be strapped into (to avoid a running with a paint brush scenario)
• Optional:
  • Water cup ( use with caution and not much water in it as it could be spilled)
  • Blank board book for toddler painting in

Other things to keep in mind:

• To avoid mud paintings, limit color choices to two or three colors and preferably not the opposite colors on the color wheel which mix to brown (red-green, orange-blue, yellow-purple)
• Most of your attention will need to be on your toddler > wiping hands off, changing papers, washing brushes,  getting more paint colors, and always keeping actual paint bottles out of reach
• Do not leave Mr./Miss Toddler unattended for more than a few seconds at most. Murphy's Law: paint in the ear or worse will happen.
  
• Keep calm
• Ideally, clean up while Mr./Miss Toddler is still strapped into the booster seat. Otherwise be prepared to clean up quickly starting with any paint, paint brushes, and wet paint pictures or it could get ugly
• Don't expect to do much painting yourself and if you do paint, don't paint anything that you don't want "help" with painting. Mr./Miss Toddler will not understand why they can't paint on your painting

Tired now. So much for planning to work on my other art project…
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Sonja