Drawing Time!

Lately, Daniel LOVES to draw, thanks to some fun Christmas presents he received from Santa and friends. We also got out his markers for the dry erase board Aunt Christina gave him for his birthday. And Target had some awesome mini-magnetic erasers (gotta love their dollar section!!) that stick to the file cabinet nearby. So, Daniel's all set for "drawing time" whenever the mood strikes him and he has lots of choices now, too!

It's fun to see what Daniel is drawing, what he wants us to draw, and it's awesome to see his fine motor control getting better and better. He has this giant coloring book of animals (it practically takes up his whole play table!) that he loves to color in. Most of the time he just scribbles all over the page, exclaiming "Everybody messy". But one day, I asked Daniel to color in this one small flower that was about an inch big, and he actually surprised me by really trying to just color the flower. I was amazed by how closely he stayed in the lines, how he slowed down, and how he was able to stop his up and down coloring motions so well. This coming from my little boy who has just recently rediscovered how much fun coloring can be, and so, really, hasn't had too much practice. Scribbling huge lines all over still wins, though!

Daniel has a new drawing toy called an "Aquadoodle" that Santa gave him, too. You fill a "pen" with water and it magically draws on this special mat. We keep this upstairs and he loves that thing! Just another fun way to draw. Daniel is also even more interested in drawing when we go to our Wiggles class- he never used to go near the craft the table, but well, my little boy's growing up!

Yay...I got the cap open!

Drawing all over the board!

Daniel is showing me how strong he is
and how he can open the marker by himself!

One more awesome tidbit, not really related to drawing, but it started with a drawing. I always write "I (heart shape) U" on the board when I draw with Daniel and I tell him it says "I Love You". He knows the heart means love and he says it so cute, too. And while it's not like Daniel's never heard us say "I love you" before because of course we ALWAYS say it, but lately, since we've been drawing ALL the time and I always draw hearts, Daniel will pop the word "love" into his chattering throughout the day and it's the cutest thing! The other night, he went to bed chanting "I love you, I love you" over and over (sure wish I had a way to record his talking off of the baby monitor!)...I'd like to think he was talking to us, or perhaps it was just his animals, but it was definitely music to my ears!