Days of You and Me: Day 4, “Art on the Go” Bag

Yesterday Annabelle and I visited our new doctor’s office.  Since I thought we’d spend a fair amount of time in the waiting room, I suggested that she and I put together our “Art on the Go” Bag, which I’d read about in Amanda Soule’s The Creative Family.

While I’m not so crafty as Amanda and thus didn’t sew our bag, I did put a few fun art materials together (in a canvas bag) for Annabelle and me to play with whenever we’re in places, like doctors’ offices, and we need something to do.  For our purposes, I included: several blank sketch pads, colored pencils, real drawing pencils (and charcoal too), a sharpener, crayons, stickers, a gardener’s coloring book (something I picked up for myself in my pre-kid days . . . well okay, I suppose I’ve long been a kid at heart), and a gardener’s house plant guide.

Here’s how our first sit down with our “Art on the Go” Bag went:

The first items that Annabelle noticed in the bag were the fine drawing pencils, something I’d picked up for myself a few months back, never really used, and after reading Soule, decided would be put to much better use as good art materials for my toddler.

She was fascinated by the pencil sharpener, though at first, she didn’t quite know what to do with it . . .

at this point, I asked her whether she wanted me to show her how to sharpen a pencil.  She did, so I went ahead and pulled out a color that needed sharpening; this captured her interest and from there, she wanted to sharpen all the pencils in the kit . . . every single one.

So we spent several minutes, our entire wait in fact, sharpening our pencils, which really isn’t such a bad way to pass time waiting at the doctor’s office.

When at last my name was called to meet the doctor, we packed up our supplies and made our way back to the exam room.  On the way there, Annabelle told me, “I don’t want to get any shots, okay?”  Actually, it sounded more like this: “I no want to get any shots today, k?”  I assured her that there were no shots to be had today and that we were simply going to meet her brother’s doctor (since our appointment dealt mostly with his coming birth). Annabelle responded, “My brother get shots, okay?”  and then she laughed a devious little laugh.  I shook my head and told her that it wasn’t very nice to wish shots on anyone but that yes, at some point, her brother would get his shots from this doctor.  She seemed okay with my answer and once we walked inside the exam room, this is how she looked:

We then met with our new doctor (can I just say how surprised I am by how nice he is?  Isn’t it terrible but I thought it was weird that a doctor was being so personable . . . the last time I experienced something like this was when I lived in New England and saw an old Czech doctor who once told my father he was too sweet when diagnosing him with diabetes).  Annabelle shyed away at first but by the end of the appointment she felt comfortable enough to wave at the doctor (she usually screams with panic around them) and whisper a quiet goodbye.

So, how can I wrap up this story?  Well, I could draw a couple of conclusions: 1) An “Art on the Go” bag is a wonderful outlet and distraction for children (and their moms and dads too) while waiting in waiting places, 2) Annabelle is already acting like a big sister and wishing shots on her little brother, and 3) we met a genuinely nice man who happens to be a doctor and who doesn’t scare the bejesus out of my daughter.  All and all, it was a great morning.

Thanks Amanda Soule, :-)