Crayola Wonder

I don't know how long Brent and I have been drawing with Mallory. I think her first painting was in February of 2007 which means she's been using crayons, markers and paints for a year and a half. Brent is really good at drawing, he draws Mallory sitting on a horse or our dog Lucy or even a dolphin. He knows how to draw real people with legs and arms and a waist--I only know how to draw stick figures and smiley faces. Mallory is now at the age where she is starting to draw with purpose. Basically this means she will try and draw letters--usually it starts with an M and then is followed by some scribbles that turn into an A or an O or if we're lucky a Y. A few weeks ago I started drawing circles for her and having her draw the eyes, nose and mouth to complete the face. She would usually make two circles somewhere on the face and a line of some sort for the mouth--usually right through the eyes. Nonetheless, For a two year old, with a very non artistic mom, I was quite impressed with her coloring capabilities.

I was cleaning up our family room this afternoon; books, socks, markers, chalk, lucy toys, and construction paper made up the majority of the mess. When I picked up the paper I could see that Mallory had done some coloring on it. No biggie, I've realized I can't save every picture she colors and I was about to toss it in the trash. That is until I looked a little closer...

She drew that smiley face all by herself! The circle, the eyes and the mouth...AWWW Come on...is that not one of the cutest faces you have ever seen??? I asked Brent if he drew it, Mallory was standing right there and she said "No daddy not draw dat, I draw dat!" Well.

Now these kind of posts probably have most of you rolling your eyes, looking for the "X" button, and wondering why you even wasted your time here. However, these are the moments that have me wondering where the past 2.5 years have gone. I worry that I wasted too much time not drinking in each age and stage that Mallory has gone through.

A simple smiley face puts the day into perspective.