"Art"

Ella did some finger painting for the first time the other night. She had a blast. After doing some coloring a few days prior, Evan said, "Ella, that's a beautiful work of art!" She is in a stage where she repeats the last word of most our sentences, so "art" is now a new word in her vocabulary. She wasn't so sure about this new medium at first, but she was soon pointing to bottles to let us know which color she needed more of. What is not pictured is the total meltdown that ensued when we told her it was time to be "all done art." When she throws tantrums, we usually just let her proceed and walk away. (A tantrum sans audience is zero fun.) But she had paint up to her elbows, so we couldn't let her throw herself on the floor. Evan managed to hold a screaming, writhing toddler by her wrists while I got her hands washed in the sink. We ended that whole episode with a time out. It apparently didn't sour her taste for the activity, though, because the first thing she did the next morning was head to the table and say, "Art peez, Mama."