Pages

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Stay Out Of The Water

At our house, we color daily. Sometimes, hourly. Side-by-side sisters, concentrating separately, creating simultaneously -- it's all the rage.

Lauren sings and discusses while she colors. Every mark is cooed at and lullabied to until her paper is covered with musical scribbles. Every crayon is directed and praised until her non-stop mouth runs out of things to tell. Which is usually when she starts throwing crayons or pestering her sister.


No matter how studiously she was involved in her project, there comes a time when the 2-year-old decides to steal a marker.

Mia takes her artwork very seriously, as she also takes mama's instructions to keep the markers away from Lauren at all costs. (Yesterday, Lauren colored the flat-screen tv, her arms, and the kitchen floor when our vigilance was lacking. Mama wasn't happy. Lauren was.)

When the yelling ends, Mia gets back to work. Lips smashed shut, chin puckered in concentration, she fleshes out her vision. A blue sky, a yellow sun, choppy waves, pale sand: she's feeling beachy. But, nervous about populating the water with fish, she gets frustrated.

There need to be exactly 8 fish in the blue waves (for some unfathomable reason), and she just can't do it by herself. She begs for help from the lady with the camera.

Usually, mama tries to reassure and help without actually laying hands on materials. But this time, the challenge of completing 8 fishies draws her in and convinces her to join in the fun.

Everything is made better with some artistic help from mama: the fish-drawing peacemaker.

It's really too bad about those frightened little fishies, though. All the yelling over stolen markers made mama frustrated, so she drew an angry, hungry shark (-ish looking creature) to meet the fishy quota.

A frustrated mama draws angry sharks, that's all there is to it. And she enjoys the fat markers just as fully as any self respecting 4-year-old does.

15 comments:

  1. Um, can I just say how impressed I am with your fish and shark drawing abilities?

    Cute pics, as always!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Um, you are much better at drawing fish than I am. In fact, I will have to keep my boys from seeing this post or else they'll realize how sub-par my drawings are ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah... Were you an art major or something? Jeesh, talk about making another mama look bad, lol! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, that is so eerily similar to our daily coloring experiences. And I must say I'm very impressed with your mean fishy. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. NO wonder your girls are such great drawers! Look at those momma fish!!
    I think I might have even made that same face...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shoot, you'll have to give me some fish drawing lessons.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I cannot draw AT ALL...so I'm slighty jealous of your fishy talents. Haha. Cute photos. Love that "pouty" face. Sisters are a lot of fun...I had 4! Whew.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i love mia's face of intense concentration :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm impressed with your fish! My friend's little guy wanted me to draw Bob the Tomato for him the other day. Instead, I drew Bob the Blob. I can't draw! I can't even make a decent stick figure!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is hilarious. =) I laughed. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I cannot draw at all, all the artistic talent went to the oldest progeny who is an illustrator and cartoonist. No really, she has a BFA in Cartooning and Illustration.

    ReplyDelete
  12. So cute! I hope you have a magic eraser! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cool your daughters are such avid painters...
    I never got over the stage of water color. If there's one thing in the world I didn't enjoy, it was drawing. I think that drove my mom nuts sometimes, because I'd do everything else, but definitely not paint/draw...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow. I'm impressed by those fish. The kids got their artistic talent from you. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  15. The look on Mia's face while she's yelling at Lauren is priceless! Oh my! I feel like I can hear that moment now!

    Wait...no, maybe I CAN...better go check on my girls!

    (Great sharks, by the way. I like the way the big one is trying to eat the little one. It could practically be a metaphor for coloring-together siblings...)

    ReplyDelete

Hmm...And how did that make you FEEL?