Negative Space

M likes the use of negative space in this, and thinks it looks like a logo of some sort.  I was surprised when A said he was done.  But he was sure.  

This painting was an experiment in using paint rules -- I told A he could use a smaller brush, but the rule was that it could only paint blue.  He could use the larger brush in any way he wanted.  

A forgot about the rules pretty quickly, and I didn't press it.  

Pirate Bird

A says this painting is a bird, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"  He also says "it looks like a pirate to me... he has a board and he's doing this [makes a face and says "Aarrrgh!"]

I *think* the board A is talking about is the picture itself.  

Further attempts to elicit a response by asking, "What would you like Grandma M to know about this painting?" garnered the reply, "I'd like her to tape it up to her refrigerator like a poster...  I'm going to roll it up and put a rubber-band on it so the picture can be nice and fresh."

A started out painting the lower portion of the painting with the arcs (which look like yellow bird feet to me) with the announcement that he was painting a pirate boat, and a request for me to make a pirate boat for him.    This was followed by the [fairly typical question] "How do the guys in Bahia (A's name for a short from the Disney collection "Saludos Amigos") go like this?" followed by aggressive applications of paint (probably in the hope that his paint and brush will be like the magic paintbrush in the cartoon which creates tropical flora and fauna with a few flicks).  

Fearful Parent Danger #287

Captain Monkey Paws decided he wanted to wear my gas-permeable rigid contact lenses.

Luckily, my hover-parent alarm went off when I heard (or didn't hear) him in the bathroom.  By the time I saw what he was up to, one contact was on his right eyebrow and the other was in pieces on his fingertips (and very likely parts were down the drain, since the sink wasn't plugged).

Once I calmed down a bit, I realized there was a very low but non-zero chance that shards of contact lens were in A's eye, and that although his eyes were clear and he was neither crying nor trying to claw out an eye, I would lie in bed at 3:21 AM wondering if I would have to teach A Braille.

A doctor visit to after-hours pediatrics later confirmed things were fine.  They used a fluorescing dye and found no signs of damage.  

The one cool thing about the visit is that we discovered that there are small parts of A's hair that are so blonde they are fluorescent under UV light.

At Least He Didn't Blame a Stuffed Tiger

I guess all the sleep yesterday did something...

This morning when M woke up and went out into the living room, he found all of the puppets in a ring on the floor surrounding a pile of dirt from one of the houseplants.  A stick (don't ask me what kind or where it was from) was in the plant's pot.

A was in bed.  Eventually he got up, and when questioned, he said that he had gotten up earlier, "when it was dark," to play.

Volatile Day

A woke up last night about 3 AM and pestered M for cheese. Reportedly, he tossed and turned (and kicked M) for a while afterward.  

So this morning was quiet until I went in to get A out of bed at 9 AM.

Story reading hour at 10 AM was . . . interestingly volatile.  Last time, A got upset when the librarian reading (whom A really likes) did a magic trick with a hat and some water (A was convinced bodily harm was going to happen).   This time we made it through a new magic trick, barely.  But a book with a theatrical story got emotional.  

The afternoon nap started late (not too surprising) then lasted a little longer than usual.   A was pretty good, but became increasingly random and volatile as the day progressed.  

I'm going to blame a growth spurt.  

Child Logic

Scene:  The kitchen.  A has just pulled down a series of "educational" materials produced by J.  

J (squatting down to A's level):  Hey, A, can you point to the octagon?

A (sprawled out on the floor):  That one.  (Points to octagon.)

J:  Very good.  Can you point to the triangle?

A:  Thinking.  (Points to triangle.)

M (sitting at the dining nook table):  A, why is that one a triangle?

A:  Because it's purple.  

J (hitting forehead):  Uhgh.

M:  It's always good to ask these things.  (Miming a university admissions officer) "Why is this one a triangle?"  (Miming a hapless high school senior)  "Because it's always the first item in the answers."

---

Today A and I were singing various songs with "Hey Ho" in them.

J:  "Ho-ho-hosanna! Ho-zan-na-na-nana! Ho-ho-hosanna! Ho-zan-na-na-nana!"

A:  "Hey Ho!  Blow the man down!"

J:  "Hey Ho!  To the Greenwood now let us go!"

A:  "Oh blow Susannah down!  I've come from Alabama..."

At this point we dissolved into giggles because blowing Susannah down was pretty darn funny.

Guns and Arrows

One of A's favorite stories is "The King's Wish."  In it, the King of Tam shoots an arrow at a tower bell in order to wake up his people in time for them to put out a fire.  The only problem is that A hasn't seen a real bow, so he keeps talking about putting an arrow in a gun and shooting it.  Now that I think about it, he hasn't seen a real gun, either. 

That hasn't stopped him from building a class of objects called "weapons," which includes guns, arrows, and swords (which, I think he has seen at a Renaissance Faire), and, to my dismay, seem to make a strong impression on him when he sees them in children's entertainment materials.

Oh well, I guess we'll have to break out the toy catapult.

Art Lessons

I learned a few things during Friday the 13th's art session.

One I already knew, but I guess I needed to re-learn it, and that is that I shouldn't try to do collaborative art with A.  We have completely different styles.

Once he figured out that there were only two colors --  blue and yellow -- he asked for red.  We had a short conversation; I asked him what blue and yellow made (he correctly answered green), but it turned out that he wanted to make browns ("But I like brown," he said), and the only way is to mix all three colors.  As I went to the garage for the red paint, I thought, "What do you know; he was doing all that paint mixing on purpose."

Number Four

M likes this one of the paintings the best of all.

I like how the bottom part looks like a mountain.  

A said that he was drawing a circle when he made the reddish triangular bits.  

Flower Head

This is the third in a series.  

The "percussion method" of painting prevailed here.  I really wondered if A still wanted to paint, as he kept getting distracted by a neon-orange traffic cone next to his easel.  

When I asked him about this picture, A said it was about the letter "H" (or maybe "h").  

Originally, I thought the painting was about a flower, but now that I look at it, I'm seeing a three-quarters turned head with a wide-opened mouth (the bowl of the "h") -- and it looks like there are fireworks going on inside the head.  

Considering all the pirate flags A's been seeing around lately, I'm not too surprised that he'd draw a colorful skull shape.

Where's Peter Paul and Mary When You Need Them?

A said the other day, "I want a gun so I can shoot the wind to stop it from blowing."

"Oh," I said, "You can't stop the wind with a gun."

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said, "but I'm sure there's a 60's song about it."

Pirate Boat Mouth

This is the second in this week's series.  

A first painted the red shape near the bottom.  When I asked him to tell me about it, he said that it was a pirate's boat.  He then added a vertical stroke and said it was the mast.   Then things kind of got out of hand as he started -- as far as I could tell -- to pretend that he was a drummer with a drum and drumstick instead of a canvass and paintbrush.  Luckily, most of the paint landed on the canvas.  

Once the "painting" had finished, I asked him to tell me about the painting some more.  He said that it was a face.  

Blue Supper

A painted this last Monday.  

I think it looks like a Last Supper reflected in a pond.  Although, it also looks like a preying mantis or possibly a dragon.   M thought the painting was "new-fangled nonsense; but then it grew on me.  I think I felt the power of the Last Supper rise up through the painting."

A says this painting is "red and blue... I squished it on.  It felt good to squish it."

  

A tried to use water to "erase" the paint -- or at least he said that he wanted to try... but once the painting process started, he forgot and dipped the paintbrush into all three of the paint pots.  It probably didn't help that I'd reconstituted the previously used paints with slightly too much water.  

Gods and Monsters

A painted this the other week.  It's been hanging in the kitchen.

M and I agree that it has a "Night on Bald Mountain" feel to it.  A hasn't seen that particular Disney cartoon (yet).   I wish I knew what was going on in hi

s head when he paints -- when I ask him to tell me about the painting I get 35-month-year-old answers that are difficult for me to parse (along the lines of '...it's a kind of flower that you stick in the ground,' -- his 

favorite answer lately).

I let him use three colors right away.  His response was to dip the paintbrush into all three cups and then apply them to the paper.   He painted the circles first (I think), then the straight lines along the right-hand side of the paper.  The last part were the "dots" along the bottom.  Then he looked at me and said, "Can I have another piece of paper."  

The next piece wasn't quite so dense.  M looked at it once it was up and said that it looked like some kind of "eye of the Earth-mother snake goddess."  It reminds me of a psychological test where you have to look at an ambiguous figure and decide if it is a rabbit or a duck.  But I can see the eye.  M said that there was a womb in this one, too.  I see a quail as well.  

After two paintings, A said he was done -- so we put away the art supplies.  He's been wanting to do more painting, but always just before dinner or bed-time; but M says that they'll try some more art over the weekend.  

Flying the Black

One of the party activities was pirate flag making.  

I had cut out a few cardboard templates for folks to use as a way to trace various pirate designs out on paper.  

Pre-cut flags were provided -- black for the regular "high seas terror" and red for the "we're taking no prisoners."   

Some folks made their own designs.

X Marks the Spot

Yes.  We really did dig for buried treasure in the back yard.

Piratical Guests

Since the theme of A's party was "Pirates of Penzance" many folks dressed up in piratical garb (and armed).

Grandpa?

Dad?

"Ooh!  Glittery stuff!"

The Cake

Somebody said, "Anybody else would have taken a sheet cake and cut out the outline of a cake."

"So," I replied, "are you saying that I'm..."

"Yes."

Ship Ahoy!

A package arrived in the mail the other day.  

We had instructions to open it right away, so we did.

It was an early birthday present.

     

A was thrilled.  

Birthday Party Prep

A is asleep.

I've just finished the final touches on the Pirate Ship Cake.

M is burrying treasure in the backyard (the maps are drying after soaking in tea).

Survived A Wedding

A went to a wedding.  It was really nice, and we learned a few things.

1. We have to school our faces, or A will ask (loudly) "Why are you laughing?"
2. Church organs with foot pedals are really loud
3. Reception chairs dressed with wide ribbons are an opportunity for veil dancing
4. There's nothing like a party to keep you awake until 11 PM

A behaved well (except for the Poking Incident), and really liked the bagpiper.