Rainy Days and Mondays Never Get T Down!

T mixes up a storm (of paint) during a rainy day earlier this week.

This week’s local weather showed America that Southern California can and does have “winter” weather. We finally got some snow in our local mountains and rain all day Monday here at the house – with temps in the 50s near the shore (gasp!). OK, OK, I know, but it’s what our winter is, RMT’ers, and we just can’t help it!

Just a sample of T's Play-Do creations during our most recent rainy day.

T and I made the best of our rainy day by staying in and engaging in fun if not original indoor activities to pass the time. T first requested Play-Do, which kept him busy a good hour. He made such things as a baby toilet, a carrot, and other cut-out shapes. I didn’t get a photo of the baby toilet in time, but he was so proud of that little pink creation. It was pretty hysterical actually.

My little, lonely stick figure. By me, RMT. I wouldn't want anyone thinking T made this (ha)!

Then we got out the paint – which I am trying to be better at doing – and T got down to work. For another hour, T painted picture after picture, making about a half-dozen in all. He told me he wanted to make people, which was a first-time request, so I painted my own stick figure to have him see a basic way of making a person and something to model after, too. When it was T’s turn, here’s what he painted…

Our Family, by T. From left to right, T, Dad, and Mom. Sun in Sky. Pure awesome.

Yep, that’s our family, RMT’ers. I was and still am so impressed. I admit that I assisted on this slightly, but I only helped him when he wanted to paint himself a little smaller by getting him a smaller brush and starting him on the head for scale. Otherwise this is 100 percent all T’s doing.

T and Grandma Beep, by T. This was his second picture with people, which is just about as awesome as the first one, though nothing can beat the first picture of the family really (sorry Grandma Beep!). T said the item on the far right is a rainbow, and I'm not sure what the other item is between T and Grandma. Sun overhead. T loves painting suns right now.

I don’t think I have anything to worry about when it comes to T’s artistic or fine motor skills development. I admit I do worry sometimes just because things like this (art, coloring, writing) are not his first go-to request when comes to activities. After all, it wasn’t ever (and still isn’t) really one of my faves either, so I also worry my own prejudice might influence his own choices. But I need to remember the bottom line in that all of us – even the wee ones – innately have different interests regardless of what us parents do and don’t enjoy. Also just because our child might be “good” at something doesn’t mean it’s his top choice of how he wants to spend his time. After all, I myself naturally excelled at math and science while in elementary and secondary school, but then went on to major in journalism in college.