New Painting - Not an ACEO!- Le Petit Artiste

"Le Petit Artiste" 11" x 14", oil on canvas

Well, I've been trying to post for the last few days, but Blogger hasn't been letting me upload any pictures. Either Blogger or my crappy internet connection, who knows.
This one's went pretty fast. It was fun, too. It's a picture of my son, taking up the whole kitchen floor, sitting in a beam of sunlight while he colors. The scene took my breath away, and I knew I had to paint it, so I snapped a few quick photos, some of which turned out really well. There's another one from the series I might paint, too. But this is it for now.
Aren't children precious? Everything they do is precious, even the not so precious stuff. And today, that really hit home for me. I mean, I've always known it, and always thought it, but sometimes we take it for granted a bit.

That all stopped today. My daughter almost died.

For weeks, I've been telling her "Take that out of your mouth! You could choke!" Instead of just getting rid of the offending marbles, or picking them up, we'd get distracted by something else. She'd take it out of her mouth, and we wouldn't give it another thought. STUPID!@!!@#$% She's two. She doesn't listen or she just doesn't remember.

Today, she choked. She was gasping, and barely making a sound. Her face was starting to turn purple and she was clawing at her neck. I rushed over and stuck my finger down her throat, but it was a marble, and the slippery little thing just pushed farther down. I freaked! My husband rushed over and tried to get it out, but to no avail. He finally grabbed her and did the Heimlich maneuver. After only one or two tries, the marble flew out and landed on the floor in front of me. I broke down. I couldn't stop shaking. I just cried and cried. It was too close.
We went through the whole house after that, throwing out anything smaller than a baseball...well not quite a baseball, but you know...
I'll never take my children's safety for granted again. Nothing matters more than them. Her throat is sore, and she's shaken up, but she's alive.