This is pretty much how mealtime has been going lately, three times a day. I must be doing something wrong.
drawing
Sunday Sketch
I know this is a parenting blog and all, but maybe Sunday Sketch will be my new Sunday thing. Today was not the best day, but in the late afternoon I did take a walk alone in Frick Park.
I turned on a different path, which took me up a steep ravine and then suddenly dead-ended at Forbes Avenue, which traverses the park on a very high overpass. I was disappointed to discover that I’d have to walk the width of the park on Forbes to get back inside. But it turned out to be kind of beautiful walking along so high up, looking down on the trees. I stopped midway to do a quick sketch of the horizon, my sketchbook and pastels balanced precariously on the side rail. My second sketch is of some of my favorite houses along the bowling green.
Tomorrow back to regularly-scheduled baby announcements.
First Art Collaboration: Baby and Me
It was rainy today, again. I decided to sketch the babies. Of course they were having none of it. M kept trying to grab the book and pencils and put her drooly rubber frog on my drawing. E was less interested, but she was moving around so much I could barely get an outline with the two-seconds between her moving and M grabbing the paper. I couldn’t produce anything worth sharing.
On a whim I decided to trace M’s hand, which she kept putting on the page anyway. Of course as soon as I seemed interested in her keeping her hand there she grabbed it away. She acted pretty much how she does when I try to clean her hands after eating–extremely resistant, to put it lightly.
So I tried the hand-tracing with E instead. I got some colored pencils and put the sketchbook on the ground. Each time she put her hand on the page I did my best to trace its outline. A few times I got the whole hand, most times just a finger or a line before she grabbed it away. But she kept coming back. And the paper kept getting more and more colorful. I added a couple outlines of my hand in there, too, and afterward I filled it in with some solid color.
So it was our first art collaboration. Hopefully there will be more in the future. I was reminded of this artist I saw online awhile ago, who created pretty amazing paintings with her four-year-old daughter. You should definitely check those out, here, for something inspiring. But I’m happy with our first collaboration.
First Baby Steps
M is taking little steps. Not by herself, but now when you hold her up by both hands and coax her she takes jerky little steps forward. She is working on walking. Above is a sketch of her and D.
New Horse Friend
Here’s a drawing of our new little rocking/ride-on horse. I got it off the neighborhood list serv for $5. After disassembling it and washing it I’ve finally put it back together and am excited to see how the babies will like it. I hope they do. I’m feeling quite fond of it myself. What a friendly little horse.
Extremely Easy, Arty Creative Games for Kids (or Adults)
Here are two extremely easy, fun creative games that take no supplies at all. When I was younger I used to do these both with my middle sister. Hours of entertainment, I’m telling you.
The first may be a bit easier to take. All you need is two people, a piece of paper and a pen. Here’s how it works. The first person makes some random scribble on the page not resembling anything. The second person then has to make that scribble into a picture of something. That’s it. And actually, you don’t even need two people, you can do it by yourself: I did this evening and quite enjoyed myself actually. Here are my results:
Before
After
Before
After
The second is, wait for it…drawings made of human hair! On the shower wall! What, you’re not convinced? Well I’m telling you when my sister and I were little, we used to be quite impressed by each others’ hair drawings. Though I will admit it led to a lifelong bad habit of sticking shed hair to the wall during showers. At least that keeps it out of the drain. But anyway, I digress. It works similarly to the scribbles. The random hair stuck on the wall suggests the shape of something. Behold a hare of hair:
Hard to take good photos in the shower.
Here’s a little perspective.
And a slimy frog:
Ribbit
Hope you enjoyed. You probably won’t believe me, but the first idea for a blog I ever had was to do a hair picture every day and post it. Probably for the best I didn’t follow through on that one. With twins, I don’t have time for standing around that long in the shower, anyway. Looking forward to when mine are old enough for drawing.
Munchkin Studies
Cheeks. Two views.
Trying Out the Baby Swing
This is a sketch of M at the playground. A couple weeks ago I took the babies to the park to try out the baby swings. This was before the temperature dropped permanently below freezing. Anyway it was a lot of fun. There was only one swing free, so they had to take turns. M really seemed to enjoy it, swinging her legs and grinning away. Bean wasn’t so sure about the whole thing. I think she was tired. Looking forward to trying it again when the weather warms. Is it spring yet?
Watercolor of the Babies’ First Christmas
It was very red.
Baby M Turns to Me In the Exersaucer – Quick Sketch
Here is a quick sketch of M in the exersaucer. She kept swiveling all around to suck on the sun rattle, press the animal-noise buttons, move the breads on their track. Then she’d turn back to find me still there watching her, and smile her gorgeous, face-lighting smile.
Space Monkey Twins 