An important lesson I have gotten from my child is how important play actually is. Sometimes when I am working with her I find myself getting a bit rule driven, controlling and focused on "not messing up" that I have to force myself to step back and let her be the playful person that she does so well. In this case it was letting her paint a smiley face with black paint in the pink paint even though inside my head I was screaming about the dark color contaminating the light color. And really it was okay. No lasting damage and the moment of happiness and pure joy was totally worth the little bit of mess. Yesterday was 60 degree weather here in Boston so I let myself go out and play in the sunshine with my kids instead of getting inky in my studio. Brought my sketchbook and didn't even use it. Most everything is replaceable except for time and these moments.