October 30, 2003
Tiger on the prowl
We returned to Holmberg Orchards on Monday, and got more “gourgeousses”, apples and Pear Cider. Johann decided later that night that he wanted to paint faces on the gourds. Tuesday ended up being “Johann Day” a trip to the Aquarium, painting in the evening and all manner of other fun. While Tammy worked on Johann’s Halloween outfit, Johann and I painted faces on the gourds and pumpkins. After a minor—but messy—accident Johann ended up painting sans pants. Shortly after that he decided he was a Tiger, and of course a tiger must have stripes. I tried for about 10 minutes to prevent it, but the paint is non-toxic and wonderfully non-permanent, and art should be fun—especially for a child.
Since I couldn’t stop it—and no longer even wanted to—I asked him to paint the guide lines with his grey paint, and I helped him stripe himself up in black and grey. As soon as the stripes were on, Johann was transformed into Shere Khan. He crawled and clawed, growled and grrr’d, paced and pounced and even purred. We let him stay in his stripes chasing us and curling in our laps for a scratch, for about 40 minutes before bath time. He had a ball. He asked Tammy to make him a tiger costume, and we told him we can try to find some allergy safe theatrical makeup as well. There are three new pictures of Shere Khan–er, I mean Johann in the Artist Gallery.