Of art and rice cereal

I've always thought Audrey is a talented little artist. You can just look at my refrigerator to see. I also always believed I'm a normal, biased mother who tends to exaggerate. But a couple of things happened this week that make me wonder...

First of all, Audrey went to the doctor to get a physical. Actually, she saw the nurse practitioner because we had to get it done as soon as possible, and she was the first available appointment (why did we need to do it as soon as possible? Because she IS going to kindergarten in the fall! But that's another story...). Audrey usually hates going to the doctor (or nurse) because it usually means she has to get a shot or two. However, we'd already been in for a couple of shots the week before, so she wasn't scheduled for any this time. Because she was not dreading a needle, she actually enjoyed this physical. She loved that the nurse was asking HER all kinds of questions, that she got to go down and look at a little chart to test her vision, and listen to some beeps to test her hearing, and that it was basically all about HER. (If only we all could think about going to the doctor this way...but I digress. I'm starting to ramble. Hi mrtl!)

Before the nurse practitioner came in, after the RN had weighed her, measured her, taken her blood pressure, we were sitting and waiting. As usual, we had to wait about a half hour, maybe a little more. It wasn't until almost the end of this waiting time that I noticed a picture on the wall, obviously drawn by a child. It was framed and matted...and looked vaguely familiar. It was a picture of two girls and an adult, surrounded by butterflies of all different colors. I blinked, and looked again. It DID look SO familiar...at the bottom of the matting was a few words. I got up to look closer. "Audrey, age 3...AUDREY! That's your picture on the wall! Look!" I practically shrieked. After Audrey recovered her hearing (good thing this was also AFTER the hearing test), we talked about how it could have gotten up there on the wall. I finally remembered that last year when I had brought her in for something or other, again to see the nurse practitioner, Audrey had drawn her this picture. The nurse had made such a fuss over it and asked if she could keep it. Well, of course...Audrey had drawn it just for her. I assumed it would go in her file, as my thyroid doctor and midwife have both put pictures Audrey had drawn for them in MY files. Apparently not, though, for there it was, right there on the wall in the exam room. And as soon as the nurse came in, the first thing she asked was, "Audrey, did you see your picture up there?" I am so proud. My daughter, she's an artist you know.

As if this were not enough...a few days ago, we got some mail from Sesame Street Magazine, which comes with my subscription to another magazine. Almost a year ago, Audrey had drawn a picture of Zoe, copied from a page in the magazine. I was impressed with the detail in it, and decided we should submit it for consideration for Big Bird's Fridge, the last page of the magazine. A month or so went by, and then Audrey received a post card from Big Bird. The post card thanked her for "writing", and I figured that was all that would come of it. The post card is still on our refrigerator (if you care to look again).

So when this package arrived, almost a year later, I was mystified. We opened it up, and found the original picture she had drawn, along with two copies of the July issue of Sesame Street Magazine. "How nice of them to send her original back, even if it's a year later," I thought to myself, "but why did they send us two copies of the magazine?" Suddenly it dawned on me (and if I had been smart, I would have found a letter inside the envelope explaining everything). "Leo, give me one of those! Open it up...the last page!" Sure enough, on the last page, practically smack dab in the middle, was her picture.



Want a close up? I've got it right here:



And the original? You betcha:



If you look close, you can see the barrettes she drew in Zoe's hair. If you have REALLY good eyes, you'll see the one on the right is a butterfly. Just like the real Zoe.

Yep. That's my kid! She's an artist you know. Real eye for detail, she's got.

Just so Aislinn won't feel left out, let me show you what her lovely mug looked like this afternoon.



This was not her first, but her second, foray into the wonderful world of rice cereal. I tried to get a picture of her face after the first time, but wouldn't you know, she grabbed that bib and wiped her face clean. No joke (and no fun for pictures!). So I snapped the picture today. The mess on her face is less a testament to how she felt about the cereal, because she loved it, and more to the fact that it's been about four and a half years since I've fed a baby runny rice cereal. Aislinn also likes grabbing for the bowl and the spoon already, which contributed to the rice face.

I'm looking forward to green beans next week!