The hitting toddler

Two weeks ago at library class Leila decided to exercise her new found love of hitting other children.  Fabulous, a mother's worst nightmare...I am trying to figure out how to end this phase stat.  I politely approached the little girl's mother and apologized for Leila's aggressiveness towards sweet Claire.  Good thing I did!  She was very nice and we got to talking and found out our little girls are only 2 months apart.  Two play dates later and many lessons in sharing and not hitting (on Leila's part), Jenny and I seem to have a lot in common besides being new moms.  We both love sprucing up second hand furniture and design and she told me about Chartreuse and Co. (can't believe I hadn't heard about it!)...if all works out hopefully we can leave the girls with our husbands this weekend and go searching for a few hours!  I have a serious issue with places like this...for me it is comparable to being in an art gallery, art supply store or library...my stomach does somersaults I get so darn excited!  Must remain calm.

Meanwhile....one day when I was in Italy I took the train (by myself!) to Siena for the day and did this loose, gestural sketch in marker.  I recently translated it to canvas using acrylic on cotton (or shower curtain I should say...I had this shower curtain I loved and eventually shrunk it in the wash and didn't have the heart to throw it out.)  Voila!  Shower curtain is now painting backdrop.  It's a small, funky, super thick and super fun painting...almost finished but not quite.

Siena

Leila seeing her first cow over the weekend.  She said "MOOO" when she saw him.

More pics to come, but here's one from the weekend with just 3 of her 17 cousins before her baptism.