My mini painter

Last week I was painting during Eleanor's nap and she woke up before I was finished.  So I brought her out to the living room, tried to engage her with some toys and then went back to my painting.

Of course, Eleanor immediately abandoned her toys and crawled up to me.  I put her on my lap and after she watched me for a minute, she picked up a pencil I had laying there and acted like she wanted to get in on the painting.  So I grabbed a piece of cardstock white paper and handed her a paint brush.
I was amazed to see that she dabbed the paintbrush in the paint, just as I had done, and then brought it carefully over to her piece of paper.  She moved the paintbrush around as deliberately as she could and then dabbed it back into the paint and painted some more.

I was blown away that she had been so observant of what I was doing and then had the skill and patience to repeat it exactly herself.  This is not our first rodeo with paint, but previously we have only done finger paints and it has taken a lot of encouraging to get her into it.

Needless to say I am thrilled to see this little spark of creativity growing in her.  And also I am more aware than ever before that she watches what we do and wants to be like us.  A good reminder that I need to be on my toes, exhibiting behavior that I would actually want her to replicate.

So that painting up there is 100% her doing and I am absolutely going to frame it for her bedroom.  This baby phase has it's challenges but the perks far outweighs them.  Eleanor is just so so fun right now.