A Watermelon Day

One thing that I've quickly learned from being home with the girls all day is that Hannah thrives on structured activity time.  Don't get me wrong, she does play independently very well and she doesn't need to be constantly entertained, but she does get bored in the afternoons.  She loves to do "projects" and is constantly wanting to help me do things.  We hear "I do that tooooo."  This week we checked out a book at the library about a watermelon and I had also bought a watermelon this week at the store.   After her nap yesterday we decided to use the book, the watermelon, and some art supplies to make it a "Watermelon Day." 

We started by reading this book:

 

Then we cut open our melon and ate it!

Hannah was very excited to have a Watermelon Day!

Hannah said that this side was for Hannah...

and this side is for Mommy!

She kept saying, "Juicy, yummy!" 

(although she really didn't like it that much and only ate 2 bites)

Then we made a watermelon out of a paper plate:

Why the blue watermelon?  After we painted the watermelons I got out some other colors for Hannah to paint with.  She grabbed one of the watermelon pieces and painted it blue.  When I told her that watermelons were not blue, she disagreed.

I'm not going to call her Einstein...but maybe Van Gogh

I try really hard not to make references to how smart I think Hannah is.  The main reason why is because, as a teacher, you soon learn that everyone thinks their child is a little genius.  I believe that children are smart in different ways and that smart is not something that you are- smart is something that you can get, if you are willing to put forth some effort.  That being said, Hannah continues to amaze me with her memory, vocabulary, and ability to soak in every single word I tell her.  She is constantly asking these days, "Mommy, what's this called?"  So the other day she was at her easel and I was in the living room (there is a 1/2 wall divider so she could hear me but could not see me and I could not see her).  I asked her to draw me a picture of Sadie.  She began talking about what she was drawing and said things like face, eyes, hair.  I said, "Don't forget her arms and legs!"  When she was done she wanted me to come see her picture.  I was fully expecting some scribbles on the paper- because to me, that's what two year olds do.  I think my mouth hit the floor when I saw this:

Ummm...my child is 27 months old.  Where on earth did she learn how to draw a person?  This person has 2 eyes, hair, a mouth, arms, and legs.  Those of you who know a little about my artistic ability know for sure that these skills didn't come from me.  I am the person who got a D on the art painting identification test in high school.  My mom actually did a few of my drawings and projects for me (I think she was afraid that I was going to fail art).  Kyle may or may not have done a few of my house drawings in drafting class.  I think you get the picture- I am not an artist! (Kyle is not any better and now that I'm married to him I think I probably would have been better off doing my own drafting drawings).  I'm pretty sure that Hannah can draw a person better than I can- and I don't mean when I was 27 months old- I mean now.  Just to make sure this wasn't a fluke, over the past several days I have asked Hannah to draw more people.  Here are the results:

This is Michelle and Brian.

This is mommy.  Sorry these last 2 are turned- I can't get them to rotate.

This is daddy.

I seriously can't believe that a 2 year old can draw a person.  Is this normal for a 2 year old?  Well, I don't know because I have never had one before.  I think I may need to sign her up for an art class because I won't be able to help her one darn bit!