A Good Sick Day

Normally, Lambchop #1 can be very whiny when she's sick. Being sick seems to really knock her out, so she's generally miserable. She woke up this morning feeling a lot better than last night, but I tested her ear by tugging lightly on it. Her "ouch" told me she'd better go to the doctor today. So, I kept her home and made an appointment. Daddy's got an earache, too, so I sent him along with her. While waiting for him to get ready, Lambchop #1 and I made a little shirt I had promised to paint with her long ago. At the time, she wanted to paint a princess on the front, but today, she was in the mood for a house with a little person next to it.

What took me so long was trying to decide how to go about painting on fabric. The paints are supposed to be used for that purpose, but I tried them out on a pair of plain white panties with less than satisfactory results. I then decided some kind of template would be best. I don't have any butcher paper, and I don't even know where you could get any here in France, so that wasn't an option. That's when I decided on this cardboard cut-out method. The t-shirt itself is pinned to a piece of cardboard to hold it in place and to hold it taut.

After pinning the shirt down, I had her draw the house and sun and person another piece of cardboard. Then, I cut the larger pieces out and we colored on them with the paints. Then, we held the painted pieces onto the fabric and pressed down and pulled them off when the paint looked good on the shirt. She then drew in the sun's rays. I saw how hard it was for her to control the paint tube while trying to squeeze hard enough to make the paint come out, so I did the flowers and the person, trying my hardest to be faithful to her own representation of them on the cardboard.

It was definitely a fun little project to do with her on a day when Lambchop #2 wasn't home and while Lambchop #3 was napping. It's rare for me to get any time alone with Lambchop #1. As is often the case with the oldest child, I feel like she feels a little swept aside at times when she wants us to "take care of her" just like we take care of the baby and her less independent younger brother. It can't be easy being the first kid, even though, I admit I wouldn't know, since I was the second and last child in our family.

Let's just hope she will want to wear this shirt with pride when it's all dried.