Shhh! There’s an Artist at work:
That’s SteelyKid hard at work on something. I think she was writing my name, though it might’ve been writing Emmy’s name. It’s a little tough to tell from the photographs.
Of course, the real purpose of making art is to be able to discuss it:
This led to my new favorite SteelyKid conversation:
SteelyKid: That’s a car.
Kate: Is the car going somewhere?
SteelyKid: No. It just stays on the paper.
She went on to explain that the car had been inside the marker, but then she took the top off the marker, and put it on the paper, and the car came out. Which is pretty impressive. She’s just about to turn three, and she’s already got the Artist-as-conduit-for-something-external line of patter down. I look forward to the next time we get out the Play-Doh, when she’ll explain how she looks at a blob of it and then takes away all the bits that aren’t an elephant.
Since Kate and SteelyKid both make appearances above, I thought it only fair that I get a cameo. Sort of:
That’s my hand being traced. Which may not look that impressive to you– she skipped a finger this time– but it’s actually a dramatic leap forward in her fine motor skills. A month ago, “drawing [my] hand” meant scribbling a little blob between my thumb and index finger, then declaring it done.
One time she skipped a finger. Another time she made a loop between two of your fingers, which sent me into quiet convulsions–“You have six fingers on your left hand.”
(Except it was actually the right in the movie.)
One time she skipped a finger. Another time she made a loop between two of your fingers
Well, at least I have five fingers on average…
Oh, and the first picture, the page under the one she’s working on, that consists of great big back-and-forth scribbles? That was her drawing ability several months ago.
Language acquisition is my favorite, but fine motor skills are pretty neat too.
All these posts about your daughter. Why, it’s almost like you love her and expect us to find her as adorable as you do…
Well, you’re *right*. She’s precious.
I love how deeply engrossed she looks in the first and last picture, and how engaged she looks in the second one. I imagine her attention span isn’t very long yet, but it certainly looks like when she does focus, she’s really focussed.
What I find fascinating is the baby gate system in the background of the pictures. How many shelves have you had to gate off, and how did you make the decision? I ask because we are trying to decide what to do about our library.
The gate is a metal “play yard” system that we’ve stretched in front of the fireplace, and the two small bookcases built into the sides of it. It’s just long enough to cover the whole thing, and protect those books and the knick-knacks that are also on those shelves. Though as SteelyKid keeps getting bigger and bigger, her arms are getting long enough to reach some of it. She’s been pretty good about not messing with that stuff so far, though.
The bulk of our collection is in bookcases in the library, which have cabinet doors over the two lowest shelves, so they’re safer. The paperbacks are on shelves in our bedroom, where SteelyKid never goes unaccompanied, or in the spare bedroom, where nobody ever goes.
reesei, the library was built while I was pregnant and we deliberately designed it so the bottom couple feet were cabinets with doors, not shelves. Most of the paperbacks live in our bedroom and the spare bedroom, which have doors. So, the accessible shelves were really only those built-ins next to the fireplace, and also an open shelf-thing in the dining room, which made it easy for us.
The car was in the pen. It isn’t really the “artist as conduit for something” idea, but something even stranger, I think. Very impressive indeed.