little things

Charlotte calls herself an artist. Whereas she says that she WILL be an astronaut, a farmer, a firefighter and whatever else, she says she IS an artist. She says she'll "make the world a more beautiful place with her art." So I see a lot of art. She colors every day and it always finding new ways to experiment. We had friends bring us bread from Great Harvest Bread Co. this past week and our loaf had loads of seeds all over it. Charlotte actually picked those seeds off her slice and glued them to her latest project. She is easily inspired and works fast. In fact, I need to bring a plastic bag with me to pick Charlotte up from Sunday school because while most kids in her class have one or two projects to carry home, Charlotte often has a pile of 10 projects-- all gluey, painty, sticky, and glittery. By the time I'm handed her pile of art, she's off down the hallway making friends and looking for papa and then I'm balancing her sticky, glittery projects AND chasing Liam. I decided a couple weeks ago that all these projects should be put in the care of the US Postal Service and sent to grandparents. Charlotte is devastated when I throw away her work, but loves the idea of sending her art to family. I guess this serves as your warning, grandparents! Anyways, here's a picture that I actually really admired. She colored a whale and I knew what it was without having to lovingly prompt her with, "Tell me about your picture, love."
If I remember right, Liam was throwing a fit here. He crawled into the toy box and started abusing the toys as his sign of protest, probably because I wouldn't serve him a cup of milk fast enough. Whatever was going on, I thought to get a picture because he often crawls into the toy box. He actually likes to climb into this closet, shut the door, and sit in the toys. He's really not a moody kid-- Liam is more laid back, but he does get upset when he can't have a cup of milk and when he's tired and can't get a cup of milk. This last picture is from Naomi's again. It seems we've gone over there at least once a week for the last couple weeks-- which I have loved because we talk about books and kids and church and shoes and family and music and loads of other things. This last week we talked about creationism, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and leather boots, among so many other things. I am so enjoying this friendship and I have been so grateful that Charlotte and Liam enjoy these mornings, too. Naomi has lots of cool toys and books at her house and this picture of Charlotte is with her son's toy guitar. I laughed taking a small series of pictures of Charlotte with this guitar because she looked like a natural the whole time. She's seen her dad play the guitar once or twice a long time ago, but she's never played with a guitar herself. She knew exactly what to do though-- sat right down, opened a book on the music stand and started adjusting strings.