grillsidestories

Can you recognize what this is? Nariah did this a few months ago while she was still in her 3’s. As a parent looking at this, it seems quite amazing for a 3 year old to stay inside the lines and actually use color in this manner for a dress. After a few minutes looking at this with my mouth open and saying “woooooooooooooow” inside my head, I snap back to reality. “Well done Nariah! This is awesome!!!“.

Ok, praise your children for their work, check. But what do you do when you don’t recognize what they draw and you make the mistake of saying “Oh wow, what a cute puppy!“, only to hear “Daddy, this is a house and a fish bowl“. Doh!

I love passing on any type of advice and tips to other parents, but when you’re wrong with somethings on your own children, what can you really say to other parents? Your child could draw the same house/fish bowl picture and you could think its a boat on a lake. When I picked up Nariah from school yesterday, I thought with a little time to myself I could use some sort of Special Super Daddy analysis to figure out these indiscernible works of art.

Closer to the end of the day at daycare, they start moving kids around in classrooms as the child count dwindles. This day I have the fortune of her classroom being empty, giving me free range to examine her art so when I walk across the hall I can proclaim “This is the best (insert whatever it is here) I’ve ever seen Nariah!“. Ok, superdad thinking cap on, lets go!

Ok, what did you see? If you cheated a little bit and looked at the picture of the girl in the dress at the top of this blog, you could see the similarities in the two pictures in terms of legs. I count them… 12? Did she really mean to have an even number of legs? She knows insects have 6, and spiders have 8, so this has to be a caterpillar or centipede or something. Since she’s learned about caterpillars recently, boom, there it is, my baby has drawn a caterpillar! Now, what’s that white box? Hmmmm, this is tough, caterpillar and a box? Ok, its not colored in, its white… white… white… cocoon! Caterpillars make a cocoon to become a butterfly! Nariah knows all about butterflies! As that humorous Youtube sportscaster says (at the 2:25 mark) “Boom, there goes the dynamite!”

Feeling good about myself, I head across the hall. “Daaaaaaaaaddy!!!!“. Crayons drop, chairs slide, and I move my hand just in time to protect “myself” as Nariah comes careening into my midsection. “Hey baby! I picked up your drawing! Man this is awesome!  I love your caterpillar and cocoon!”

The look on her face said it all, I was wrong again wasn’t I?
“That’s not a caterpillar daddy.”
“It’s not? Are you sure?” (Never question a child on their artwork)
“Yes I’m sure.”
“Oh, well what is it? I must’ve held it the wrong way.”
“Daddy, you’re so silly, you have to turn it this way, its a blender”
“A blender? As in one you make drinks with?” (Amazing to me that she knows what a blender is as we haven’t used one since she’s been born)
“Yessssssss daddy… these are the buttons on the right and the glass cup is on the left”
After a few minutes looking at this with my mouth open and saying “woooooooooooooow” inside my head, I snap back to reality. “Well done Nariah! This is awesome!!!“.