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.