Body Painting

Today was one of those days. It kept on raining, and if we tried to go outside in a moment of dryness, it would start to rain again before we were halfway down the street. Joseph was going stir crazy inside. He is in terror mode of late. Not really intentionally bad but so much into everything and not sitting still for a moment that mommy is ready to lock him up in padded room. Or herself. We tried colouring, but for some reason Joseph never seems to be interested long in his crayons. We tried blocks. We tried memory. 'We' were at our wits end.
Then mommy had the brilliant idea to try fingerpainting once more, even though the first try out a few months ago had not been an overwhelming success. Joseph loved to put his fingers in the paint and mix them together. The idea to put those painted fingers on a sheet of paper though seemed not that interesting.

Today started out the same. Joseph played a bit with the paint but did not seem that interested. Until... he tried to grab one of the buttons on my blouse. You see, Joseph has a rather strange fascination with my belly, especially my belly button. He likes to poke it, touch it, rub it... Frequently he will just start pulling up my shirt to get to the 'buh' (from the Dutch 'buik'.)
In order to protect my clean, new blouse, I quickly pulled it a bit up. Joseph stared fascinated at the belly. Trying to get his interest back to the paint, I dipped my own finger in it, then made two dots for eyes and a smile on it. Now that got his attention. He dipped his own fingers in the paint and started enthousiastically to paint this much more interesting canvas: mommy. And oh my that canvas could be cleaned with just a baby wipe, and then he could start all over again. Which is why I probably still have some paint in my belly button. But we had giggles and laughs on a rainy day. And that is what counts, right?

Seeing my earlier posts on modesty, I am certain you can understand why there is no accompanying picture of my son's artwork. I can assure you though, it was worth it.