Crafty Naomi

Naomi whipped up
a pumpkin headband.
Pretty sure everyone
7 and under is going
to want one of these!

It's another typical day. An open glue bottle, a tape dispenser and a child-sized pair of purple scissors stand like islands in a lake of papers and drawings. Colored scraps scatter across the floor like leaves in early fall, and the occasional misplaced popsicle stick or pipe cleaner decorates a chair. Naomi is hard at work, creating Pinterest-worthy craft projects and not picking up after herself at all. 

It all takes me back to the moment Naomi discovered her hands. Most babies take weeks to learn that they own a pair of hands, but Naomi found hers on Day 3. She seemed to smile at the same time, which I would attribute to gas, but she sure seemed happy and there's photo evidence to prove it. (See this post: https://odegaardbaby.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-first-week-home.html)

Little Naomi doing her
thing.

I do think there are some things that hold true about a child from the very beginning, and this was one of Naomi's.

Because it didn't take long, relatively, for the baby to begin putting her hands to good use. Sometime in her second year of life, I believe, she perfected her pencil grip (I've seen 8-year-olds with much worse--none of mine, of course). Shortly after, she discovered tape, and we kept Amazon busy mailing us 8-packs to refill our dispenser for about the next 2-3 years. Everything needed tape, and lots of it--why use a little, when a lot is more fun? Besides, when Mommy is busy schooling the big sisters, tape seems like an awesome idea. Around this time she also decided scissors were a good idea, and paint, and soon she was off to the races creating.

But it hasn't been all rainbows and unicorns. Naomi's perfectionistic tendencies often get in the way of perfectly good art. In her dramatic 3s and 4s, upon creating a work she didn't entirely approve of, she'd:
1. Scream, cry, tantrum
2. Rip/crumple offending artwork
3. Shove it under the couch/into the trash as far as she could.

4. Ramp up and/or repeat if I tried to smooth things over.
Now that I look back, it was adorable. In the moment, especially if I had already been mentally planning a display for the artwork, which of course was always good enough for Mommy, not so much.

She still occasionally struggles with perfectionism, but fortunately her skills seem to align fairly well with her expectations most of the time. Unfortunately, the mini-meltdowns that ensue aren't much less explosive than they were a couple years ago, just less frequent. On the plus side, less-than-perfect artwork sometimes ends up in the recycle bin, albeit torn and crumpled. Or she allows me to "set it aside for a bit," and once, notably, hours later even took my suggestion for how to fix a drawing that was too close to the top of the paper for a unicorn horn to fit on the puppy. ("Why don't you just cut out a horn from some other paper and glue it on?") I'll say it again to emphasize the sheer novelty of the moment: she took my suggestion.

This girl couldn't
wait to dive in to
the bag of cotton
balls I brought home
for her!

Whenever I have free time, Naomi asks for a craft project to do. But not just any craft project: "A 3-D craft, Mommy." At which point, I'm expected to just whip out an idea for a charming little critter or object she can make out of the supplies we have on hand. 

Fortunately, she's super resourceful in coming up with ideas of her own accord, making sweet little creations that look like they came from a book. A while back Naomi made paper kites every day. Before that, she made animals out of paper cups and toilet paper tubes.  Nowadays it's pom-pom critters, rubber stamp stories, and stringed musical instruments (that Elise tuned to actually play a song!).

She's often inspired by the materials in front of her. Beyond Scotch tape, her first love, she's been excited by: paper plates, paper cups, popsicle sticks, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, toilet paper tubes, shoeboxes, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, string/cord/yarn, and any drawing materials. 

Naomi crafts on all occasions, but virtually always on the onset of a holiday or new season. She's tuned into the months of the year so she can break out new art inspirations. "Is it fall yet? How many more days?" For fall this year, so far, she's made a leaf pile, complete with a pipe cleaner/popsicle stick rake, a mini garland of leaves for her Calico Critters house, a squirrel in a tree, a couple pumpkins, pom-pom apples and pumpkins, decorations for the house, and many pictures, among other crafts. Most of these have been entirely her own design, but she's also happy to recycle old crafts, such as the cotton-ball igloo she remembered from 2 years ago and remade a few weeks ago. Along with a pom-pom seal to live in it and a cotton-ball iceberg. 

This creates the natural problem of what to do with:

1. The messes, on top of messes, on top of messes. 

2. The actual crafts.

Fortunately, Naomi is pretty decent at cleaning up after herself, when compelled. Naomi: "But Mom, didn't I already clean up this room today?" Me: "But you got everything out again." Naomi: *sigh* "I guess you're right." Nevertheless, even adults become stymied when looking at the table after she's finished a project (or 5). Matt has long since stopped trying to figure it out (I'm pretty sure it'd all end up in the trashcan if I pushed it), and I often have to step in just so the poor girl isn't overcome by her prolific crafting. Like, actually buried by it. 

As far as the actual crafts, Naomi used to count them all by name. "Mommy, remember that little puppy puffy I made a long time ago, and it was blue and pink?" Me: "Um.... kinda?" Naomi: "Where is it?" 😳

The best of Naomi's spring
crafts. Can you count the
bunnies?

So I'd keep them in a box out of the way for a loooong time, just to make sure we were really done playing with them. Because if you spend the time to make a family of puffball animals with coordinating googly eyes, you actually do want to get them out from time to time. The downside is that a reasonably sized box fills up in about a week. During particularly busy times, when I can't sort through the precious projects, a certain closet in the basement has come in reallly handy.

And after that, there's always the camera (see photo). By this time, Naomi really has forgotten, but that doesn't mean I have.... A photo makes parting with the sweetness easier, plus, of course, there's always room to save a few small/flat things.

Naomi has said she wants to consider being an art teacher when she grows up, and I could see that. For now, I'm just delighted to let her decorate the house, Naomi-style.