Playing with chalk

On our trip to Walmart the other day, we bought Eva 3 new toys: a Mrs. Potato Head, a rubber duckie (for the bath and the pool) and a $1 bucket of chalk. When we were in the old TLF, there was a little boy across the courtyard who had this bucket of chalk, and he would leave it all out on the porch, all colorful and tempting. Of course, Eva walked over there to steal his chalk any chance she got, and we were constantly running after her to keep her away from their porch. So now that we are on the other side of the building, I thought we should give our own chalk a try. I didn't know if she would catch onto the concept of coloring with it--I don't know what age they figure that out. But if anything, I knew she would like to carry the bucket around, and it was only $1, so we got it.

And what a great purchase it was! We got it out for the first time yesterday afternoon, and she loved it. I kept her in just her diaper to save myself some laundry, and she looked so cute sitting out there practically naked. In true Eva fashion, she was just as interested in the bucket as she was the actual chalk.

She loved that the chalk could roll, and she would toss it in my direction and I would roll it back to her. She collected as many chalks at a time as her little hands could hold and, of course, got appropriately messy in the process. Who could resist a little washable body art? I even got her to smile for the camera, which is no easy feat these days.

And of course, it needed a little taste testing. Oddly enough, she didn't think it was gross, because she kept trying to eat it. And, being the bad mother that I am and wanting to choose my battles wisely, I let her lick it. Hey, it's her mouth. It's not going to kill her. Right?

The funniest was when she found an ant crawling across the porch. She grabbed her yellow chalk and attempted to smash the ant with it. She would put the chalk right on the ant and then draw a line. She kept missing the poor ant, which was about the size of a speck of dust (heaven knows how she even spotted it in the first place), but she seemed quite entertained by doing this. Eventually the ant got away, hopefully unharmed, and Eva wasn't too upset at his loss.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that a belly like that is only cute for the first couple years of life. Pregnancy? Not so much. Although, proportionately to her body, her belly is as big as mine. Live it up, Eva. Your days of sitting topless and carefree with your belly hanging out are numbered.