Creative Art

All three of our children are very creative in their own way. Andrew likes to create sculptures with dirty dishes, Bella likes to draw fairies and caricatures and Julia just loves art in general. Julia is the really sneaky one and she uses art to get her point across. Some of you may remember a blog from my myspace page where she tried to use a sock puppet to get more food.

Just recently we were driving to Dubuque with the kids to run some quick errands (as quick as you can be with three kids) and Gary was taking some new road he found (I never know where he will take us). Andrew and Bella are listening to their I Pod shuffles while simultaneously reading their books or playing their Nintendo DS which leaves Julia on her own and usually using me as her sole source of attention.

"Mom, why is it raining outside?"

"Mom, what am I thinking about right now?"

"Mom, why can't an ostrich eat peanuts?"

Julia is the queen of random questions and a lot of them envolve me attempting to read her mind to get the right answer.

"Mom, what is this?" I look back and see she has drawn a long sinuous line down the fogged up window created by the warm air inside the car while a cold rain pours outside.

"The Amazon River" I say with a smile.

"Nope."

"The Mississippi River."

"Nope."

"The Nile."

"Nope."

"A snake, worm, hiking trail or smoke curling from the fire."

She just looks at me with a grin and says "No mom, it's a tear. Do you know why it's there?" I just look at her and shake my head wondering where this is going. "It's a tear because we haven't been to the movies in a long time."

I break out laughing and find myself looking at the clock to see if we have time to fit in a movie and reviewing in my head what I have seen in commercials lateley for family movies. I almost feel compelled to reward the creative way Julia has chosen to ask for something. Once again I find myself hoping that she will use her cuteness and creativity for good and not evil when she grows up.

I explain to her that there just isn't time on this trip to see a movie and she just smiles and says "we don't ever get to do anything fun." How do I explain to her that I get all the fun I need just from listening to her and that she is more entertainment than any movie I will see.