Since Monday was a holiday for both work and daycare, the kids and I went on a Target adventure. The Valentine's Day merchandise was already down to 90% off so of course I had to check it out. There were some cute valentines that were Olivia the pig and monster trucks (favorites of Pickle and Q respectively.) I figured we could use them in "art" projects or something – at 10 cents for a pack, how could I not?!?! Jeremy was on call that day/night so I needed to amuse the kids for the rest of the day by myself anyway. We talked about doing art all morning and I told Q we would do it after nap time. As soon as he got up from his nap, he asked about art but his sister was still sleeping. All through dinner prep and dinner consumption, Q kept talking about art. And Caroline kept exclaiming, "Aht!"
So finally after dinner Monday night, I cleared the table and set out construction paper, markers, crayons, stickers, glue, the 90% off valentines, and some leftover bits and pieces from our Valentine making (I'll blog that eventually – posts involving photos are still a challenge.) Q was excited so Pickle was excited, even though she didn't know what was going on. Quentin literally put two entire sheets of heart stickers on a piece of construction paper, then asked me to glue a couple of monster truck valentines to it. And then he checked out.
But Pickle… she made 6 or 7 sheets worth. She'd color with the crayons and markers and then ask for and point to the accessories she wanted to use – she used everything – stickers, die cuts, Olivia valentines, monster truck valentines. She was very specific about which sticker or valentine she wanted, and she knew right where she wanted to stick them. And she knew when each piece was complete – she would push it away and say, "done!" and then ask for more paper.
So, as I was cleaning off the table from dinner last night, Caroline starting chanting, "Aht! Aht! Aht!" And she cranked out a few more masterpieces. She followed it up with making me write the letter C over and over again, with every single crayon and marker, until we filled up two more sheets just with Cs.
We may have a new nightly ritual on our hands. Anyone need some custom aht?