I Can't Always Guess What He's Thinking

David has been showing off his artistic side recently--the side he got from his paternal grandfather.  That's not to say that he's *quite* at his grandpa's level.  ;-)  But he definitely has been having fun with being creative, and he's always coming up with something that he's drawn or put together or colored, etc. 

Sometimes, however, I interpret his creations incorrectly.  For example, when David showed me this self-portrait that he drew...

...he said, "You know what part of it I don't like?"  Sure that he would say "the nose," I was somewhat taken aback when he sighed and answered, "The legs.  They're too skinny."  "True, they are rather skinny, but if you're going to be picky about that, shouldn't you pay a little attention to that beak of a nose?" was what I thought, but of course I didn't say anything.  If the nose didn't bother David, it didn't bother me.  ;-)

Another example: in the class David took at a local community college this past summer, he made this:

I took one look at it and knew it was a sea turtle.  Nope.  "It's a man with a mohawk!" David corrected me. Of course!  Now I see it!  :)

Yesterday David was playing with some magnets that Grandma Fisher gave him during her recent visit to us. When I walked by the kitchen table after he was done playing with them, I saw this creation and was impressed.  Next time I saw him, I complimented him on his Indian village, complete with stockade and teepee--and all the while, I was thinking how wonderful it was that even in his play, he's reviewing the information we've been studying in history this year.

 "That's not an Indian village!" he exclaimed with a touch of indignation.  "It's a face!"  I had to go back and look at it again; and when I looked straight down on it, I realized that he was right: it really was a face.  :)

You'd think by now I'd have learned my lesson that it's a little dangerous to guess what he's made.  Instead, I need to say, "Wow, I like this!  Tell me about what you made!"  Is that open-ended enough?  ;-)

Just for fun, here are two other drawings David did a while back with dry erase markers.  The first is of a gymnast, and all the circles in the top half of the drawing are the spectators, of course.

And the last one is a happy home scene.

Whether or not I understand what he's thinking as he creates his art, one thing doesn't change:  I sure do love that little artist.  :)

(I bet Picasso's mother didn't always understand his art either.)  ;-)