Making Messes

Davis is the mess-making KING!  The thought of anything being neat and organized makes him cringe, and he will immediately "take care" of anything that needs to be "taken care of".  To him, a bookshelf full of books is an eye sore.  He is compelled to take each book off the shelf, one at a time, and fling it to the floor.  A neat roll of toilet paper just drives him crazy.  He will pull it and spin it until it is satisfactorily strewn across the floor of the bathroom.  And the hall.  And the bedroom.  And if, heaven forbid, you have a stack of magazines on the coffee table or anywhere else, he will throw them to the floor individually like my brother used to do with playing cards after he had convinced me to play "52 pickup" for the hundredth time.  I was such a sucker!

So, you would think that finger painting would be the BEST activity for Davis.  Wrong.  My main concern was that he would eat it, but I had checked the label first and made sure that it was non-toxic.  It didn't occur to me that he wouldn't enjoy it.  And I'm actually surprised I waited this long to try finger painting with him, given my artsy-fartsy nature and preschool teacher personality.  He did not enjoy it.  I convinced him to beat on the table a few times, and he seemed somewhat interested in the bright colors, but he didn't like having that gooey paint on his hands.  I'm pretty sure I saw him gag once or twice because of the texture.  On the bright side, he looked really cute for the whole 3 minutes he tolerated it, he didn't cry, and he did something new, which I think is great.  Maybe we'll try again in a few days and he'll like it better.  For being such a trooper, he was rewarded with some serious water hose time and got to run naked around the back yard.