While staring at my blank canvas sitting on the easel I would never stick the wet paint brush tip in my mouth. Inadvertently cover myself with oil paint yes, but eat paint? Never. Neither would I ever feed food colouring to myself or my family. Not happening. Ever. The knowledge of all those preservatives and the actual colouring going into our body makes me cringe! How could unnaturally coloured food be healthy? And so it was quite ironic to find myself marching down the food aisle last week, in search of - yup, you guessed it - food colouring!
Not only that; my purpose was to put the colouring in food. Yoghurt to be specific. My precious goats milk yoghurt to be very specific. Shocked?! I know. It horrified my husband too. He bends the rules as far as healthy eating goes but he could never imagine his read-all-the-labels-if-you-can't-read-it-neither-can-your-body-does-it-grow-in-nature-or-in-a-science-lab wife buying food colouring to put in food! Have I got your attention? I think you'll love my reasoning. I thought my toddler would. I was wrong. Seems he is even more adverse to food colouring than I am!
A friend sent me a photo of her toddler covered with paint. She said they had been finger painting and he loved it. As an artist I have been eagerly awaiting the appropriate age that my little boy will enjoy art. He likes pencils and using them on floors and walls, but I'm talking colour. On paper. My friend who is not at all where I am on matters of health, was highly amused to advise me.
So following her advice I bought the food colouring. Back home I gulped down the horror of colouring my beautiful white goats milk yoghurt and filled four tubs. Red. Blue. Yellow. Green. And voila! Finger paint! My little boy finally abandoned his games to inspect my efforts. He was very excited about stacking up the tubs. But after throwing a handful of grass in one. And pouring the yellow into the red (which turned out pink instead of red), he laughed and ran away. All my sweet words and colourful efforts were in vain. Although the kittens were very grateful for my efforts.