Whenever I sit down with my daughter to color, I always get a little bit nervous that she'll ask me to draw something other than a happy face or a flower. You see, her dad can look at a picture of something and copy it to look almost exactly the same. So, she can go to her Dad and say something like "Dad, can you draw Shrek?" And he'll say "Sure I can! Bring me the DVD so I can look at it!" And within a few minutes, she'll be smiling from ear to ear, running around the house showing off the custom drawing of Shrek that Daddy made for her.
Now, whenever she asks me to draw something for her it's a completely different story. Every single time she asks me to draw something for her there is an emotional breakdown of some kind.
"That's not Snow White! That's a piece of poop! WAHHHHH!"
"No! Look! It's Snow White! Look at her pretty hair!"
"That's not hair! That's poop! I WANT SNOW WHITE NOT POOP! WAHHHH"
"That's the best I can do, little girl. I'm sorry I'm not talented like your Dad! I suck! WAAAAAAHHH!"
So, imagine the horror I felt deep down in my soul yesterday when we were having a precious little tea party and my daughter blurted out the words, "Will you draw Woody and Jesse for me, Mama?"
SHIT.
I tried explaining to her that I can NOT draw and "Hey! I have an idea! Let's wait til Daddy gets home and we'll ask him to draw Woody and Jesse for you! He loves to draw for you!"
"But MooOOoooOm! I want YOU to draw them for me!"
There was no getting out of it. I was going to have to try to draw Woody and Jesse. This wasn't going to end well.
She brought me the DVD covers and I began to draw. She leaned in and watched me intensely as I began to sketch. My heart was pounding. My hands were sweaty. I knew it was only a matter of minutes before we'd both be laying on the floor in tears.
When I was finished drawing, I took a deep breath and waited for her response. I was fully expecting the "OMG THIS DOESNT' LOOK LIKE WOODY!" Emotional Breakdown because, well...
She looked. She tilted her head. Then, she turned to me and said "MOM!"
Oh NOES. Here we go, I thought.
"You didn't give Jesse eyelashes!"
She grabbed the pen from me, begin to add some lashes and when she was finished, she giggled and said "there, now it looks like Jesse!"
Sure it does. If Jesse were a demented Old Circus Monkey*!
She loved them. Absolutely loved them. And that is why I love that little girl-- she is so unpredictable and almost always in a wonderful way. Every day is full of surprise and new adventures and I am enjoying the hell out of her and her Dramatic ways.
(Speaking of Dramatics... I leave you with this gem. Numbers in Opera.)
*If you get the reference, I kind of love you.
Dude, woody looks like he has a woody with that belt.
Every time we have "drawing wars" (at restaurants or such), my daughter will ask for things such as: A lamp that has poop for a head with jelly on top.