Free Draw.

The other day, another mom came by to pick up her kids, who were over for a playdate.  I was inside the house.  She stood of the porch and, laughing nervously, yelled into the house, "Wow!  You're brave!"

I smiled modestly and thanked her for complimenting my capable creative spirit, "Oh, well, I thought the kids might like some painting and the porch is the perfect spot..."

For what I believed I was being complimented.

A few seconds later, I realized I hadn't seen Lou in awhile.  "Awhile" in toddler time, which roughly equals two minutes or ample time to destroy something quietly.

So, while trying to wrap up the playdate, I sweetly called, "Lou! LouLou! Lou?"  She was nowhere.
Finally, the mom said, "Jill, she's here with me.  On the porch.  That's what I was talking about when I said you were brave..."

And there, was my daughter, wearing her fancy dress, standing on the table, meticulously smearing blue paint over every inch of exposed skin.

  For whom I was actually being complimented.  (This was the second time it happened.)

The playdate mom smiled anxiously at me.

While Lou is a paint girl, Elias' preferred medium is a really nice, top quality, fine-but not-too-fine pointed, black pen.  He spends hours filling up blank notebooks with maps, spaceships, cats, cows, and planets.  I have hundreds of pages of his work.  He blasts through blank notebooks at a disturbing pace.  Good thing South African sketchbooks are relatively cheap here.  (I am awfully tempted, however, by some of the gorgeous paper options listed here.)

We're planning a trip to the pen section of Pearl Paint this summer.  His mind will be blown.

Buy this original print (sans pink arrow) here.

We'll just make sure to keep Lou away from the paint.