Discovering ArtBeast

Haha! I'm laughing hard at myself right now, because I accidentally created this post! I sent these photos to this blog when I meant just to send them to my email address! I read a comment from Aunty Cathy, talking about "red dough" and I thought, "what in the world is she talking about?!" And then I came online to blog, and here was this post that I didn't know I published! Ooops! So I'll just go ahead and write about it, since that's what my initial intention was anyway. :)

A few days ago, I took Anjali to a place called ArtBeast for the first time. A building just a few blocks away, it has three floors, all dedicated to creative play for children up to seven years old. Bottom floor has musical instruments ~ a piano, drums, shakers, etc., a stage with costumes, a puppet stage with many plush puppets, a dollhouse with many toys, and lots of stuffed animals. The second floor (my personal favorite) ~ many tables with chairs completely set up for art activities: thread your own necklace with beads, paint on paper, play dough, play with sand, paint on an easel, play with modeling clay, etc. Then the top floor has playrooms ~ one with tubes that you can crawl through, fabrics to swirl in the air, shapes to build; another has essentially an ourdoor-style wooden fort, with a full play kitchen downstairs equipped with a hundred toy foods, plates and cups, etc., and upstairs a "bedroom" with doll beds, blankets, and dolls. The place is staffed by art-lovers who ~ seemingly invisibly ~ replenish paints and papers, wipe up messes, and tidy toys. When we arrived, the place was loud with children's voices, and children buzzed around the place like a bustling beehive. Three hours later ~ naptime for most ~ it was much quieter and calmer with only a few kids and parents.

Anjali entered feverishly and dove in immediately. Her cheeks flushed with excitement. Her favorite areas: the puppet play house, with its piles of costumes and puppets, painting on the easels, making necklaces, and playing with play dough.

The hardest part: leaving. We brought snacks, but Anjali could not be torn away to eat. It was way past naptime, and she hadn't sat down for a single bite. If she remembered she was hungry, and followed my lead to the snack area, she would become engrossed in another activity before we could make it to eat. I expected her to sleep so well that night after so much excitement, but it seems that it stimulated her so much she was still running in her sleep! (I don't mean for this to be blue and underlined! Oh, the frustrations of a techno-amateur!)

I had half-way decided that ArtBeast was too much of a good thing for us right now, and that I would like to do more art projects with Anjali at home instead. Then this morning, Anjali recounted in detail to Papi about her ArtBeast experience, with hand gestures: "A pi-nanno (piano), and and and painted on a pay-puur (paper), and a girl with a purple shirt make a neck-wiss (necklace)!" I said, "Are you talking about ArtBeast?" And she said, "Yeah! Art-beast! I wanna go again!" :)