life, love & laundry
My Budding Artiste
I know I’ve mentioned this a million times but my girl cannot stop drawing and writing. She is what you might call obsessed passionate! I will openly admit she used to be a huge TV addict. I often felt guilty about it. But I also feel like restriction often leads to misplaced desire. So I let her be. And, as expected, she is no longer interested in TV. She’ll watch maybe a show when she wakes up or before bed but otherwise she’s far too busy drawing and writing and cutting to focus on TV.
{my all-time favorite picture – she drew it of herself last month. It makes me laugh out loud every day!}
You know what else I felt guilty about? Her extreme dislike of being read to. She hated it. She is still not a huge fan although she will go through phases of really listening to books. I worried it was because of the TV. I worried that she would never like books and never learn to read. Because that’s what “they” say, right? You have to read to kids all the time!!! Reading to them begets readers!!! But guess what? She is learning to read just fine and she is in love with words and writing and sounds and spelling – oh boy, I can’t count how many times a day she asks how to spell things – and she’s only 3. And she still hates being read to!
{minnie mouse}
Right now she is on a card and mask kick. She makes cards for everyone and they pile up on my desk waiting to be mailed. Before we can even find an envelope or stamp there are several more for the same recipient. And she makes masks with paper plates and craft sticks. They are always kitty masks. They are super super cute. I love them. I wish, though, if she is going to burn through our plates, that she’d change it up a little sometimes!
{her current self-portrait – hair down to the floor. Oh and those round things? Those are buttons on her dress. Fyi :)}
So she is burning through an entire forest of trees making her cards and drawings. But she’s still using her chalkboard constantly, too. Did you know a lot of kids chalk contains lead? Scary, right? I did not really think about this since none of my kids have ever really used chalk. I always bought the cheapo big buckets, every spring, with visions of driveway murals in my head. It sat in the garage unused until Addy came along. My girl, she goes through some CHALK! She’s burned through 3 kids’ worth of sidewalk chalk. There is chalk dust everywhere. I cringe thinking about what kind of lead is floating in our air. Finally I dumped all the old chalk remnants and replaced them with safe chalk (Crayola, Roseart are both safe). For Christmas, I’m going to buy Addy some of these. How cool are they? WAY better than chalk!
{Thanksgiving Turkey a la Addy}
And last but not least, as proof that her heart still loves her TV shows, she created this replication of Wubbzy and Widget:
{one-armed Wubbzy and his pal Widget}
In case you have no idea who Wubbzy and Widget are, here are the real versions:
{Wubbzy on the ball, Widget is the pink, um, bunny? on the right}
6 Comments to “My Budding Artiste”
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November 20th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
King is in a HUGE mask phase too :)
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November 20th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Wow those are crazy! Way beyond what my daughter is drawing at the same age. Girls got talent :)
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November 21st, 2009 at 10:10 am
I love her drawings! So creative and so much personality coming through.
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November 21st, 2009 at 10:47 am
Beautiful artwork and lovely pic :)
Something about crayola I found out: A friend of mine’s child used that chalk all the time. During some blood work they found her lead levels quite high. They cleaned out the house and had several things tested- the ’safe’ chalk wound up having lead. It may have been a fluke, but thought I’d pass it on.
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Nicki Reply:
November 21st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Awesome. Figures. I really really hate chalk.
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November 24th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I have always felt guilty for not reading to Tank Boy nearly as much as I read to the girls, and I was afraid learning to read would be so hard for him because of it. But? He’s reading way, way, way above grade level and he just turned five in September. I still wish I’d read to him more, but it was a challenge with him. Oh, and glad you clarified those buttons on Addy’s drawing ;). I love that first one, with all the teeth. Crack me up! You should take some of those drawings and make a greeting card line. Seriously.
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