Dad (or a Scruffy-Looking Nerf Herder) and Isaac

Wait a second. When he handed me this drawing a few weeks ago, he said: "Look, Dad, it's you and me." Now he's telling me it's him and Han Solo. I get second billing to a scruffy-looking Nerf herder? Oh well.

All You Can Eat

"I drew this picture because when I grow up I want to work in a restaurant. Usually I like to draw because it's just so fun imagining that you're like somewhere and like doing something. But this is really what I really want to have. If you like I'm serving my mom and dad even though I'm far away from home. I'll have a lot of money when I'm done and it'll be so fun. I will pay for my childrens' college and other things for them to do."

So says our middle child, who had me type this because I'm a faster "typer" and she likes to watch me type.

This is Mom and Dad at the restaurant, by the way. We're eating Brussels sprouts, our favorite.

Art Evolution

First you see here  a drawing by our daughter, of me singing away with my iPod. I'm not exactly sure what I'm singing, nor if I'm singing well, but since the passerby -- my daughter -- with the baby in the stroller is smiling, I can assume my singing is above the bar set by your standard karaoke practitioner.

This is, however, an example of art evolution, because as you'll see in the next drawing, this was only the progenitor of a much grander work:

Here we see a more fully-formed idea, though the sun isn't as smilin' in this drawing as in the previous one. This time, it's her singing along with the iPod while her younger brother offers the ungodly sum of $5 for the item. She daydreams of horses -- do eight-year-old girls daydream of anything else -- while she sings this song:

When I was little
I had a herd of horses.
2 survived the earthquake
I was sad.

Don't know where the lyrics came from, except from the depths of an eight-year-old brain.

So, why present the first drawing if the second is more fully formed? Because of the suck-up letter on the back of the first:

Dear Dad,

Summer is almost here! I am so excited because it is fun! No school two birthdays in my small family. I just wish that my birthday was in summer. Well this is a picture that reminds me of summer. People sing and children pushing strollers. And baby's asleep in strollers. Well have fun!

Love,

Alexia Joy Davidson

Who can't love that?

Suck-Up Art

Every parent gets art like this and, unless they're absolute jerks, every parent loves getting art like this. I'm talking Suck-Up Art. That's what we cynical people call it. But coming from a child, such artwork -- like this from our daughter -- is sincere. It's the kind of stuff to be treasured up because darn tootin' it's not likely to be repeated when the kids are teenagers. But I should remain optimistic and give my children the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they'll be adorable as teens. They sure are adorable now. And that's even before the Suck-up Art arrived.