Mixing colors

One of the things Joey finds comforting is color. When he first started talking and we were teaching him to answer questions, when in doubt, he named a color. It was safe, and he could show he knew something. Blue's Clues has an episode on color where they mix colors together to make other colors. It is Joey's favorite episode, bar none.

Joey has been a little depressed lately. Not his energetic, giggly self; a little more languid, a little tired, a little sad. The beginning of school is something he looks forward to, but it entails a lot of changes and new challenges. We also have a teacher than is less than stellar (or has been so far), and some separation anxiety from last year's teacher, who was way beyond stellar.

Consequently, color has been a huge theme of motor-mouthing here.

I set the boys up to paint today after school. I thought with the renewed comfort of color, it was just a good idea. (And I couldn't find my iron to do fuse beads. How does one lose an iron?) This is actually the first step of making stick puppets. We're making turkeys and ghosts this round. I set them up, and we were off to the races!

I crept out of the room, partly to get the camera, partly to give them some moments to just do their thing. I came back to Joey proudly displaying hands covered in paint and his puppets, as well as a paper he had gotten from the art supply shelf.

"Purple and red make magenta!" he said proudly, grinning from ear to ear. Sure enough, he had made magenta.

"Green and yellow make chartreuse!" he pointed proudly to his patch of chartreuse. We also did marigold, violet (blue-purple), and aquamarine. (He had his hands washed before I recovered, so sorry, no pic).

Happiest boy on earth. Score: Mom, one. Depression, zero.


On another grand development, Joey wanted a soda while we waited for the paint to dry. To do this, he had to:

1. Go to the kitchen.
2. Open the fridge.
3. Open the bottom drawer of the fridge.
4. Get his soda.
5. Close the drawer.
6. Close the fridge.

I told him these steps very carefully. It took two tries, but he managed to do it- all by himself. I guess grape soda is more motivating than I imagined.