For love of the fish ... and frog

Jenelle painted this lovely paint-by-number the other day. Now I feel obliged to say I don't believe in paint-by-numbers - they stifle creativity and are not art. Of course I was taught as an art education major to turn my snooty little nose up at coloring books for the same reason, and yet I spend plenty of time sitting on the couch coloring "My Little Ponies" with the girls in their very large coloring book. I am a hypocrite. But my girls are so cute and they enjoy it so much and I put my silly little high ideals on a shelf because they are 2 and 3 years old and I think there are much larger battles to fight in the world today than how coloring books are ruining our children. I could be wrong but somehow I don't think so. That said, I still don't approve of paint-by-number or the ridiculous little containers the paints come in that are nearly impossible to open without catastrophe. And with that said, Jenelle is SO proud of her painting. She ADORES the little easel that came in the package, and she wants to share the pleasure of viewing it with all - especially our fish. This is my favorite! Everytime I come into the kitchen I find her masterpiece in one of these two positions:
And I have heard her saying to the fish a number of times, "There. Now you can see my dolphin painting. Do you like it? I'll leave it here for you to look at." And each time she has lingered to observe, and then walked off with such a smile on her face - so content to have made the world a better place. I love it.
Now on a less happy note, Bubba, the frog has died. I thought this would be tramautic, but Jell pointed out the fact while eating Kix and watching Little Einsteins by stating, "Hey mom. Bubba, the frog, died. We need to get a new frog and name him Bubba." Kind of unfeeling. Kind of surprising. Let the record show though, that I don't think the viewing of her dolphin had anything to do with his early and unexpected demise. I'm just glad there were no tears nor need of an explanation of froggy heaven.