artBEAST

I took Sheridan to an art studio (artBEAST) designed for kids today. And man did he LOVE it. I put some clothes on him that he's about to outgrow (so who cares how dirty they get?!).

We had too much fun painting, playing with clay, washing baby dolls in bathtubs, and playing with sand/gravel/tractors to take pictures, but I did get a few...

Here's Sheridan checkin' out another boy painting (obviously Sheridan had already worked on a few masterpieces of his own - including his shirt and face - you should have seen his tray before I cleaned it!).


The cool thing was that Sheridan could partake in EVERY activity. At times he would stand and paint at the easel or on the wall (yes, they let you paint on one of the walls!), other times he would crawl around and sit on the ground and work, or he'd sit in one of the booster seats, or he'd kneel at a table.

Here he is with his gal-pal Gracie. She's just a few months younger than Sheridan and SUPER cute!


Gracie liked painting, too :)


A close up of Sheridan's self-portrait...


And Grace painting at the easel...


This place is SO awesome. It's all about sensory play, and letting kids do whatever they want in terms of art and activities. They have two more floors that we didn't even get to - Sheridan loved the arts and crafts in this room and the water/sand/gravel activities outside in the courtyard.

And... drum roll please... Sheridan only had 2 brief pop-eye moments - here's an example of what that looks like:


He does this when he's... shall we say... "not pleased." I've written briefly before about how Sheridan has a hard time around other kids. I figured we'd give artBEAST a try and if he couldn't handle it, we'd simply leave. But he LOVED it! And only twice whimpered for a few seconds. Other than that, he crawled around with the other kids - he didn't care that 10 kids were running circles around him. And talk about LOUD! He did great today - I think he was so interested in the activities, and watching the other children play, that he forgot to be upset about it all :)

I'm so proud of Buddy. And so glad we have a cool new activity that we can do together!

Um, I think he wore himself out...


Another thing to love about this place (like I needed more!): The proceeds from ArtBeast fund programs for homeless children and youth. Every penny raised at ArtBeast goes to one of two places: back into artBEAST or into Tubman House, a residential community for homeless youth and children.