artists

I know every child draws wonderfully cute and funny pictures, and like every parent, we can't help but be proud to see our rascals blossoming as little artists. So, here we go... a journey through our house, one drawing at a time. (Okay, really more than one at a time, because, as usual, I have a problem narrowing things like this down, so I made little collages of most of them to make it seem less crazy. You know, only "officially" posting 16 pictures instead of ...counting right now... 36. You're welcome.) Click on the pictures to make them bigger... you know, so you can FULLY appreciate their awesomeness...

Nuala is a little drawing addict. She's been cranking out the artwork for quite a while now, and I thought I'd record a little of it. In the above grouping (left to right, top to bottom), there's the family portrait, Daddy with a dog and a cat that are greatly wished for, then Daddy and Bran at the table, and Maeve, Nuala, and Mommy at the table.

These are just a few of the "Mom" portraits she's drawn. I especially love my blonde look, with the crazy eyes.

And THIS is my favorite "Mom" portrait. Yes, yes... I, too, was quite impressed with how well-endowed I turned out, but was deflated (haHA!) to find out those were, in fact, floaties on my arms. Turns out I'm only 4 in this picture. (Interesting note: Nuala's never even used floaties, as far as I know, and had to describe them to me to tell me what they were: "you know, those things children wear on their arms when they are swimming to not go under the water...")

An alien in a rocket for Bran (doesn't the label "BRANNUALA" make you think of some lumbering monster? Or cute little Bunnicula, I guess. I like it.), a self-portrait for Daddy, a strange monster for Daddy, and a fairy.

Another monster for Daddy, an alien (I love his eye and his tooth...his overall expression), and a picture of Jesus standing outside the tomb after He was resurrected.

These are cool! An alien for her friend "Liam with the black hair," and two boats on the ocean. Look at her name on Liam's picture -- totally backwards. Not just reverse order, but the letters are mirror-image, too! Granted, only the "N" and the "L" are affected, but still, it was pretty funky. She does that occasionally, out of the blue and totally not on purpose.

The top one here is actually a recipe for cookies that she did by herself, just brought it to me afterwards (and yeah, we did make cookies that day, somewhat following her recipe). The round thing is a bowl, and next to it is a bag of sugar and then a spoon for stirring. The boxy thing with a smaller, dotted boxy thing inside it is the oven with the cookies in it. The next picture is my gigantically bloated hand with many fingers pulling the cookies out. I said, "wow, that's a lot of fingers!" and Nuala laughed and said, "the hand was too big!" Gotta fill up the extra hand space with extra fingers, obviously! The bottom pic is so cute. A fairy next to her fairy house, which is a tulip. A tulip with a face. At least it's happy. She taped little gems onto this one, and it holds a place of honor above my side of the bed. We have pictures taped up all over the place. Lots downstairs on our windows, but now they just multiply in all the bedrooms, too. Maeve even has one above her crib.

And Bran! He draws a lot, too, but not as much nor as "seriously" as Nuala. His specialty used to be alien spiders, but now just aliens. And rockets. Like the art above.

Okay, the first pic he drew in December. Do you remember when I put up the cute little nativity picture Nuala did? Well, when I asked Bran to do one, THAT'S what he brought to me. He started making it somewhat Christmas-y, what with the little Christmas tree in the lower left area, but then added a small alien in a spaceship being attacked by a huge alien with a space gun. Ahhhh, little boys! Next drawing is, shockingly, another alien.

Top Left: Alien. Center: A dragon breathing fire. Top Right: Two envelopes with aliens on them that say "Mom" on the other side because they had notes and drawings for me inside (by the way, the two of them discovered the box of envelopes one morning, and by evening time there was only one left. It was a pretty full box. Thankfully, Z managed to rescue a handful sometime between all the note and letter writing. Those are safely squirreled away for the once in a blue moon that we actually need an envelope. But we have loads of lovingly decorated ones turning up in random corners now!). Bottom Left: Alien, neatly cut out for me. Bottom Right: An octopus and his spear (under him) and a ghost fish. This one was done last September, but I like it. See his name? He's come far since then! I do miss his little draw-a-line-for-the-"B"-and-then-two-circles-on-it thing, though.

A book he made. About aliens.

And here is where I blatantly do the thing you're never supposed to do with twins. COMPARE them. But it's quite interesting to me, and I'm pretty certain they're both comfortable with their different interests and skill levels and. frankly, won't really care by the time they're old enough to understand, yadda yadda yadda... Anyway, Bran's "welcome home" drawing for Z, and then Nuala's.

And one of the (many) drawings I received for Mother's Day. A collaboration between the two of them. On the top, Bran's flowers, and on the bottom, Nuala's. She is much more interested in and better at drawing and writing than he is. She's learning to read right now, and doing quite well, but Bran doesn't have the interest in it that she does and obviously I'm not going to force it on him. And I know that all children are different, and there are boys out there who are little whizzes, I'm sure, at drawing and reading and writing at this age, and girls who are not quite as into it either, but I think they're reflecting the general, average differences between girls and boys at this stage of development. I just find it fascinating. They're so different, in so many ways. I know, I know, OBVIOUSLY. But it's cool to have it all playing out under our roof. Sometimes it's cool. Other times it's downright annoying. Like when Nuala is pulling the stereotypical girl-drama thing and Bran is pulling the brother-pushing-her-buttons thing... yeah.

But back to artsy type stuff. Bran has quite an eye for building things. He is the Michelangelo to his sister's Raphael, for although Michelangelo was a great painter, his heart was set in stone. Because he really loved sculpting. (Okay, those last couple of sentences don't really flow, but I like my Michelangelo-Raphael line, so they're staying.) Bran loves seeing how things are put together, and building towers and weapons and Transformers with his Legos and Trio blocks, etc. I think that's kind of reflected in the next couple of pictures. Z brought them each a drawing book last time he went to the States, and I totally thought that Bran wouldn't be interested in it that much, but man, I was wrong! I know, I know... WRONG. I'm not used to that! (Hahaha! But really. I'm not.)

Above are some good examples of Nuala's foray into directed drawing. Not all that impressive. But Bran... Oh, Bran!

These were a couple I was watching him do. He said he wanted to try the helicopter, and whipped this baby out before I was even settled beside him. I thought I'd have to really guide him and all, but no! Then the bug was next. Yeah, maybe the little fella wishes he had 6 legs, but I'm thinking he's lucky he turned out so awesome! I guess it's because having these drawing instructions was a little bit like building something. He just followed step-by-step and, voila! I was quite impressed with my little guy.

And Maeve. Can't leave her out. She's always drawing with the big kids. Even at church she goes over to the little table with Bran and Nuala and Mia and climbs up in a chair and colors away with them. She's very serious about it, too. Uses one color for a while, then deliberately puts it back and chooses another. Does that a few times and then comes toddling over, jabbering away about her masterpiece while holding it out for admiration. Super cute. It finally dawned on me that I should be showcasing her talent, too, so I taped up one of her pictures today. She was really pleased... huge grin, proud pointing... I love these little artists :D And just thought I'd add, we churn through the paper so fast here! They have white boards, which are perfect for traveling and church and practicing letters on, etc., but the tykes want PERMANENCE for their masterpieces! Sigh. Sorry, trees.