At W!

More art!

It’s been a long time since I shared a video of Claire. For half a year I’d had trouble uploading them to Flickr, and just as suddenly it seems to work again. So here’s a video from the other morning (if the embedded video doesn’t work, try this link):

She played the “drums” and “cymbals,” and had an audience:

And yesterday’s craft:

Life continues as normal. We create, learn, play, grow. Things change quickly! Until a couple weeks ago, Claire just couldn’t handle scissors, although she wanted to. Her hands are very petite. Then we went to a library event that involved a craft; she picked up scissors and began snipping. She’s been at it since. It remains difficult since her hands are small; she manages small snips and can’t cut a line. She switches hands when one gets tired (she’s really a righty), but she’ll get there.

In the past few days, her approach to coloring also changed. She used to scrawl a few lines on a picture and move on. She also didn’t like to color very much. Then one day she wanted to use a new book sent by Aunt Linda, and I noticed she steadily worked to color the entire picture. Her movements were more controlled, and she colored about an hour. I sat with her and kept company. It was pouring rain, and she said, “I like this quiet activity. It makes me feel cozy.” And indeed we were.

We’re on to the letter R in our alphabet crafts. You can also see a collage Claire made from the bits of paper she snipped with her scissors. I put glue on the paper, and as she cut pieces fell onto it.

When she was sick a couple weeks back, I assembled some boxes so she could make a rocket ship. We had done this at school, and it was good for several hours of entertainment. It’s the type of thing that can be stored in the garage and pulled out periodically to work on. We’ll get it out again and play with paints soon.

Way back on her birthday, someone gave Claire a little spin art toy kit. Last week I pulled it out, and we made some neat art. I helped her (it’s a challenge to coordinate squeezing paint and pushing the spin button). Here’s the result.

Aunt Linda had sent (a loooooong time ago) some glow-in-the-dark stickers. I’d stored them for a time when she could really appreciate the phenomenon. We pulled them out on a day it poured rain and decorated a piece of black paper. After exposing them to light we hung it in our half-bath, closed the door, and looked at them. She was fascinated. She was also insistently curious about the stickers that looked like whirlpools. Out of desperation I said they were worm holes. She then wanted to know if “the astronauts go into the worm hole to watch the worms wiggle.” I told her to ask her father. 😉

Lastly, for her birthday we’d given her a rug with a town decorated on it. She had zero interest in it. She has a nook under the stairs which I’d covered with two bath mats for cushioning. It was cluttered with pillows and bins of toys. I decided to clear things out and put the rug in there, and now it’s a hit!

We also have an annual membership to the Children’s Discovery Museum, activated yesterday. Prior trips to the museum were infrequent and short. Yesterday we stayed about three hours; she loved it. She understands a lot more, and she’s bigger and less daunted by the crowd of kids. She got to sit inside an ambulance, fire truck, and old jalopy. She made a collage. She played with giant soap bubbles. She made pretend pizza and learned about “eating a rainbow every day” (fruits and veggies). She painted her face thoroughly with blue and yellow in the face paint area. She built a ball ramp with giant foam blocks. And she played at the water center, getting wet and having a blast. Hub took a few photos with his camera phone, which he’s not downloaded yet. But trust me when I say we’ll be going often now!