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My son, he slays me.  He inspires me and makes me so proud.  I wonder if sometimes I go too far nurturing his creativity.  But how far is too far?  As a parent I am so often sitting at the crossroads of not enough and too far.

CED

It was a day different from what I had planned but what the heck. Riley was supposed to go to a friend's house to play this afternoon so after lunch I put him on the toboggan and walked him over. The mom had been cooking vegetables that morning - broccoli and maybe cabbage, I'm not sure but Riley stepped in the house and started to gag. He then ran outside and refused to go in. I made him try a couple of times and each time he started gagging. Truly embarrassing. What does one say to another one when your child won't go inside because their house smells?! I was horrified. So instead I brought his friend back to our house, pulling two five year olds on the toboggan (uphill). The mom called me later in the afternoon to say that she had taken her recycling out and when she went back in she, too, could smell the smell that had my son gagging. She was apologetic (can you imagine?!) because she had wanted to give me an afternoon off from childcare. I'm still embarrassed though. Kids just say what they are thinking and it's not always easy to field their comments. On the other hand, just yesterday Riley was saying something about "Whistle-toe" and I was having the darnedest time figuring out what he meant. Then it dawned on me he meant "Mistletoe" and I went into hysterics laughing. I laughed all day whenever I thought of it, so hard sometimes I was crying. His innocence and insistence of the "whistle-toe".

With all that fracas, I'm grateful we can put off to tomorrow what we would have had to do today. Since tomorrow is a ped day at my son's school our frantic weekly routine will only start tomorrow night instead of tonight. I did get some time to "create" too. I finished my calendar from Karen's class. I'm just down to the quotes now, I should be able to post the January page soon. Putting that together also meant that I got a stack of photos off the corner of my desk where I left them as impetus to get it done. Certainly get it done so I could start enjoying it. It will go up in my studio in the next few days. And my son created a bread man from his lunch, here's his chewed off sculpture/art as well as my Day 4, Daily Riley photo.

I think therefore I blog

It's been such a crazy week that I haven't blogged because basically I haven't had the time to stop and think. There is so much going on with my job, Riley's school, Halloween (not to mention a last minute change of costume), the dogs, the freakin' wintery weather. I felt like such a grinch getting ready. Cursing running out for the pumpkins, cursing staying up late last night to clean them out getting ready to carve them this afternoon with my boy. And all the stuff and politics going on with the new job, it was hard to find the time to actually get some work done. And not a little resentment about how I haven't had a minute for anything creative since Monday morning.

Things turned around a little this afternoon. At my son's school the kids were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes after lunch. So Riley trundled home for lunch and we got him together for the afternoon. Up until last weekend he was going to be Catman (an invention of his). Which meant using his cat costume from last year with just a tweak here and there. And then he decided that he wanted to be Chloe the chihuahua from the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Now already this poor little guy is getting bullied in school and I'm thinking, "you want to go to school dressed up like a girl dog??!!" But yes, he did and he does. So we spent half the weekend running around for the bits and pieces to make the costume and I shoe-horned in time this week running around to find the smaller details for it. When I saw all the kids going into the school yard in their costumes, so in the spirit of it, and the parents who also dressed up, they too in the spirit of it I thought it was time for me to get an attitude transplant. So what if the house is a pigsty. So what if I can't find the kitchen table for all the accumulated debris that came in this week that needs attention but hasn't yet got it. So what if I'm two weeks behind in Paulette's painting class. What mattered most was seeing my little boy's face light up when another child recognized him as Chloe, the chihuahua. My whole world was right there at that moment. Children can really help you focus on what is important in the moment, if you stop to be there along with them.

And here's a picture of a pumpkin supper I made this week. A while ago I started to make pictures out of Riley's meals. I was missing my art and needed to express some creativity. During my mother's last visit she was telling Riley how I used to be an artist, that I used to paint. And my beautifully observant son said, "now she paints with food". God I love that kid.

The Unspeakable

About two blocks from our house, and on the way to Riley's school, there is a newly poured and solidified cement square of the sidewalk that some fresh, young wag decided to scratch in, in about a size 102 font, "F*CK YOU". Except it's spelled in full, without the asterisk. A couple of weeks ago, walking home from school, Riley stopped and read it out loud then said, "Oh Mum, that's not nice". I always blanche when he uses some of those four letter words. It's not like he doesn't hear them on occasion at home. But, you know. When he was two and wasn't yet talking I was afraid that the first words he was going to say to grandma was, "muthaf*cka" with a great big smile on his face. And the other night when I had him in the bath and we were comparing bruises, I told him how I got a nasty one on my knee from banging it on the side of the tub. And once again he said, "That's when you said, "M-F-er". Right. Well. I reminded him that I didn't like him saying "those kinds of words". It seems so out of place to have a small child use profanity. It's rare that he uses any of "those kinds of words" and we have a deal that when I do, he is supposed to call me on it. And he takes this job quite seriously. Sometimes it doesn't go over all that well with me when it happens and an apology becomes necessary when the heat of the moment passes. But getting back to the "F-Y" we pass each day on the way to and from school. Riley is getting a strange amount of pleasure out of saying "those kind of words" by claiming to be doing a simple reading exercise. They do say the darndest things.

Health Nut

Yesterday my boy asked me for tofu. (!) Actually, he asked me last week when I was cooking some fish in the same marinade that I do our tofu and he was so disappointed to find out it wasn't tofu. So this weekend I made him some and he was so excited yesterday when I started to cook it. That must be some good tofu!

ATCs and WRONG!

I finally finished my first ATC (art trading card for those who are wondering). I had been seeing "ATC" all over the blog network, wondering what the heck. And Janet from Paulette Insall's Organic Dimension class was kind enough to fill me in when she asked if I wanted to trade with her. So it's ready Janet, and on it's way shortly.
Done on 4"x6" Strathmore watercolor post card, 140 lb coldpress. I was very impressed with the way the paper handled. It has stayed relatively flat and has been quite resilient to all the layers and wiping that went on during its creation. The picture was taken out on my back deck as I am having so much trouble with the lighting on indoor shots. Doing this one card has made me lose a lot of my fear working on watercolor paper so I plan on blazing full steam ahead. Thanks to the mixed media class mentioned, I have all kinds of ideas and projects brewing.

&

My son, Riley, is going through a phase where basically, I am wrong. About everything. Here's one of our conversations last night, down by the water.

Me: Oh, I see two ducks.
Riley: (climbing a tree) No.

A few seconds later:

Riley: They do a good job looking like rocks.

And another thing

Riley and I found this at a garage sale this weekend. A nice little art table. When we got it home (and I had bleached the bejeezus out of it) he got all his stock and set himself up. It was so sweet to see, he didn't expect me to do it for him. I realized how he is growing up just as he should be. And he spent good part of the day painting, drawing. It was the first thing he did when he got up this morning too. I was going to get him a small easel to put in what-is-quickly-becoming-my-new-art-studio but this is way better.