Dear Mom Doodles

I doodled a lot as a kid. It's good to see that habit being passed along.

Daughter Doodles

We encourage our kids to re-use paper. If it isn't covered in text or drawings on both sides, it ain't used up is our motto. Yeah, it's a sucky motto, but we stick with it.

Sometimes, however, they apply this rule to papers I'm not quite finished with yet. Today's drawing of a singing mermaid is such an example. I had printed out some Cub Scout requirements I was going through with my older son. Daughter, who would be a Cub Scout in a nanosecond if she were allowed, decided to doodle on my paper when I wasn't looking. I like surprises like this.

Doodles

Tonight, bits of "found art," mainly a palimpset of doodles on top of my own doodles.

I take a lot of notes. Important notes. Like the notes you see here, denoting the episodes of Jonny Quest I've moved to the iPod Touch. But because I leave notes like this and pens lying around my desk where the children can get them, I often get their own doodles along with my own. For example:

A dog and a bunny, this time in Bic blue ballpoint pen ink, from my daughter. And also this:

Of course, the companion animal of choice, a cat.

Not to be outdone, my oldest son also made this contribution:

The joy of found art like this is I never have to wonder where Gary Larson and the like found their inspiration. It's got to have been all around them. All they had to do was open their eyes and look. Or at least look at the papers they leave on their desks.