this is what story time with a 3 1/2 month old looks like

part of why i started reading to L was out of desperation admittedly. raising baby has much to do with entertaining baby. especially a baby that doesn't nap for great lengths of time by day. especially a baby that expresses boredom with great passion (read: cries loud & clear with no signs of stopping until his needs are met).

the more i read to L though, the more -i- enjoy it & perhaps, the more he does as well. signs i might be right?... he sits in my lap for decent stretches of time as i read, he looks at the pages more often than not, he flails his arms from time to time & gurgles/babbles at others. i do stop reading when he starts to get too fussy. but, kids, this is only after reading at least four books.

i get into character often, losing myself in the moment, hoping he notices and enjoys story time all the more. i realize each day, more & more how unbelievably fun reading to a child, heck AN INFANT! can be.

and loveys, it's insanely beneficial. read more about that here.

L is checking out his mobile in this photo. damn, he loves that mobile. he eventually refocussed. ;-)
no joke, this book is awesome if you let yourself feeeeel it. read it with rhythm & you'll find yourself longing for the dance floor, baby in tow. i swear.

we're gonna paint!

the day is just too damn short! what a crazy time warp motherhood is. feeding, changing, soothing, baby from morning to night without getting much else in is still the norm around here. i fight to get cool things in like i did on this brilliant afternoon...

i laid out my supplies the night before, which included:

-four tubes of washable finger paint (red, blue, green and yellow)

-paper especially made to handle paint

-a thick paper plate to squeeze out the paint onto

-a brown paper grocery bag, deconstructed to cover the table

-a roll of paper towels

then, once baby was decently rested and much more importantly, happily fed, i stripped him down to his diaper, quickly squirted out gorgeous globs of color on the paper plate, then snatched him out of his bumbo chair and plopped him on my lap.

the first few goes of color application onto the clean white page were gently forced, but eventually i could tell L liked or was at least fascinated by the feel of paint on his hands.

he also began to pay attention to the bright color, and YAY! we got a few smiles out of the whole experience, as well as some cute little babbling!

finger painting with L will only get better as he grows, so i can't wait until time affords us another chance to bust out the colors and go for it! i'm going to continue to do things like this with him every single chance i get, who knows what i'll come up with next. but in the meantime, we have such a cool little piece of artwork and well, a little piece of history to frame and hang!