On Halloween, I decided that Annabelle and I needed to be artistic, and we needed to celebrate the holiday. So, I quickly found instructions to create a pumpkin mask using a paper plate. I was out of plain white paper plates, so we settled for "Happy Birthday" plates from hubby's 30th birthday party, and we instead used the back of the plates to design our own jack-o-lanterns.
I left the laptop open to the web page with the sample of the pumpkin mask we were designing so that Annabelle could design her pumpkin mask accordingly. Following is Annabelle's try at her pumpkin mask.
She later decided that she wanted to help me color my pumpkin mask after I finished cutting out the eyes, nose and mouth. However, she wanted nothing to do with wearing it as she told me that it "hurt me." At a playgroup on Monday, she had pulled the elastic string on a mask she was wearing (with pumpkins for the eyes), and she struck her face hard enough to leave a raised line where the elastic string had hit. So, I think she made the connection between the two masks. Here is Mommy and Annabelle's version of the pumpkin mask. I cut out the eyes, nose and mouth and started with the coloring, but she finished coloring, and she even helped me punch some holes on the sides to hold the orange string to make it a mask.
On Halloween, we drove over to her Daddy's office so that some of his coworkers could see Annabelle dressed up as Piglet for Halloween. I asked her before we left if she wanted to take the finished pumpkin mask to show Daddy. She didn't let me forget it either when we arrived. As I was getting her out of her car seat, she grabbed the pumpkin mask and said, "Show Dattie, show Dattie." So, we carried the pumpkin mask with the eyes, nose and mouth cut out to "show Dattie."
This weekend, Annabelle decided she wanted to use her pumpkin mask plate to eat her lunch or dinner or whatever meal we were eating. Once she finished eating, her Daddy told her that he was going to take her plate and throw it away. She said, "NO!" Then, she proceeded to turn it over to show him her artwork. How dare he even think about throwing away her artwork!
So, after a weekend of "cleaning house," I decided it was time to throw away the greasy plate that Annabelle considers to be her prized artwork. I don't think she'll miss it in the morning. However, I personally do feel like I am letting go of a piece of my baby.
If only I could keep every piece of "artwork" that Annabelle designs! Everything she has scribbled on is artwork in her Mommy's eyes!
