Crayons, or why I should trust my instincts

During the big evening out, one of the other moms was talking about the art projects her 10 month old son brings home from day care. I asked, with incredulity, what kind of art projects a 10 month old can make. She told me about finger paints and paint blobs.

I though T was a little too young for paints and crayons and art projects, but then I thought, if a 10 month old can do it, certainly my 13 month old can too. I went to Target and bought these beginner crayons. The packaging says they're for 12 months and older. All the commercials show babies delightfully coloring away, chubby little hands grasping the fat end. I even asked Ry to bring home some big paper from work so we would have a large space to work on.

So this morning I opened the crayons and laid out the big paper in the middle of the kitchen floor. Now, here's where I should've trusted my first instinct.

It. Was. A. Disaster.


First off, T was far more interested in trying to bite the heads off the crayons than using them. I spent a good 7 or 8 minutes just getting him to hold the darn things the right way. Joy! He actually made a few marks on the paper ... with the paint on the sides of the crayon holder. Then he thought it would be great fun to run around the kitchen marking on everything except the giant paper in the middle of the floor. Dishwasher, walls, floor, it didn't matter as long as it wasn't paper. I finally had enough when he plopped his little butt right in the middle of the paper and proceeded to wriggle around in every way he could think of to wrinkle the paper. Maybe we'll try again when everything doesn't go directly into his mouth.