I love to paint

Santa and Cousin Caroline must have talked this Christmas because Brayden received two awesome presents and they go perfect together.  When we woke up Christmas morning we found that Santa had brought Brayden an easel.  It has a handy tray to put his crayons or paints on.  He immediately wanted to put paper on there to color.  So we did and he loved it.  Well when Brayden opened a gift from Cousin Caroline he got even more excited because his easel had more then one purpose.  Cousin Caroline got Brayden paint supplies.  He was beyond thrilled when we said it was paint.  He has finger painted before so he knew what we were talking about but he had never painted at an easel before. 

One day when I was home with Brayden we decided to set up the easel with the paint.   I made sure to protect the floor because I can only imagine what could happen with a 2 year old painting.  While I was getting things ready Brayden was busy getting the paint out and then proceeding to put them in order on the floor and try to count them...one, two, tree, one, two... Some days he counts to ten perfectly and the next day he says one through three and back again.  The joys of living with  2 year old!

We got everything ready and Brayden decided what color he wanted to paint with.  Cousin Caroline got Brayden a paint smock for Christmas so I told Brayden he needed to put it on before we started to paint and he said, " No, I don't want it".  I told him if he was going to paint he needed to wear a paint smock.  After giving him a logical explanation he agreed to wear it. 

Once we got everything set up we painted for almost an hour the first day.  I was able to paint with Brayden, put his clothes away, clean up the toys in his room, and snap pictures/videos while he painted.  It was a productive hour to say the least.   Here are some of the pictures I took.

 Waiting is always the hardest part.  I told him we needed to shake the paint so here he is with his first color selection of blue.  He got to pick the colors he uses to paint and what a great way to reinforce colors!

 I didn't put very much paint in the containers because I didn't want to waste any so I told Brayden he had to put the paint brush all the way down to the bottom of the container to get more paint on his brush. 

So impressed with his painting for the first time.  Don't worry the first time mommy in me made sure to keep his first pieces of artwork! Or maybe even 2nd and 3rd time Mommys do that too?

 I love this picture of Brayden painting.  That smile on his face is unforgettable.  I am pretty sure he had that look most of the time he was painting.   Well that face and his look of determination as he was so focused during his painting.

Look at that masterpiece!