christmas tree

Jonathan loves art at school and always talks about his paintings and coloring projects with great pride. So, partially inspired by a blog by a super creative mom, I decided to brave the world of paint and a 1 year old. I changed him into an old set of clothes that I never liked anyway, covered the dining room table with an old outdoor tablecloth and set to dipping little hands in green paint.

Jonathan LOVED it. I tried to be cool and laid back, but really I was on pins and needles the entire time he was banging his little hands around in the paint. I stayed calm on the outside until he started turning around and putting his hands on the chair. And then I only let out a little yelp of panic, and quickly wiped up the mess. I still need to work on some logistical details (tips on smocks anyone?) but at was doable and I think we will be doing more painting at home.

I spent some time last night cutting out tiny hand prints (40 in all)

and gluing them to a background

So today we had more craft-time decorating the Christmas Tree! I'm not sure I Jonathan recognized that the tree was made from his hand-prints or not. But he enjoyed the stickers and shiny bows nonetheless. And I had fun too!