pointalism

I've got this guilt complex about the blog now. Not only that... I often find myself procrastinating.... doing other stuff, when I could be updating the blog. Kind of like Kaspar, when he's about to be taken to bed. He'll walk to the bathroom a half a dozen times - first asking to brush his teeth again, then asking for lip balm or cream for his hands or another bath or simply pretend he has to go pee over and over again.

I wonder if every parent has experienced this feeling of - what's wrong with my kid? I had that exact feeling, when last November out of the blue, Kaspar began to draw. No it was not that he was drawing per say, but rather that his drawings consisted mostly of little miniature doodles, dots and points. Pointillism. I had never seen a sixteen month old kid drawing like that. Most kids take a pencil in their fist and just draw a continuous line, gesture like shapes that cover most times not only the piece of paper, but also the table or floor beneath the paper. Not my kid!
Now, here is the strangest part... In the very beginning my faint attempts of asking what he was drawing (at that point he was not really talking yet) were actually gratified with an answer. He brought me over to the window, pointed at the gray sky and made little squeaky, squally noises. The gray sky was full of birds flying high above us. It took me a moment, but I figured it out - the noises he was making were the same as the noises we had heard the seagulls make at the park the previous day.
Now we communicate freely! If he sticks his nose against the paper and tries to smell it - it'a flower. The noise of a fire engine - an obvious one. The hand motion of throwing something against the floor, followed by a thumping sound - ball. And who said you need signing classes for kids. They invent their own signs. You just have to be patient enough to decipher them!

For Christmas, Kaspar got a large box of markers, pencil crayons and these paint sticks that are more like very oily and wet crayons (all washable, thanks to very wise gift givers!) Even though I try to watch him, he's discovered ways of getting to the markers on his own. Occasionally he hides a marker, while we draw and pulls it out later, when I'm not watching. He's a sneaky, smart little fellow! He'll draw with the marker, make some marks on the table or the chair, then pull me over to show them to me, yet, as he's wisely pointing them out to me he'll say "NOOOO!" in his most honest and serious sounding voice, and shake his head just like I do, when I'm telling him not to do something.

Now that several months have passed since those first few weeks of drawing, Kaspar has begun to draw like all kids do. He scribbles, and draws large and often goes over the page. But, if you ask him, what the little birds look like in the sky, he still goes back to drawing dots on the page. I love watching him and interrogating him about what he's drawing. :-)