Creative thinker

mixed media
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

I love the way my son thinks. He always thinks outside the box and never does things like other people, probably one of the reasons he prefers to play alone. Here are a few recent examples. He took a tissue and laid it over his train tracks for snow. The wrap (unbroken) from a ball of yarn for a tunnel. Buttons are a favorite "tool" for him as are magnets. He LOVES magnets. When a thrift store shoved a bag of those magnetix things into my bag, i thought they were going to go right to another thrift store but he took to them right off.

refridgerator art href="http://www.flickr.com/people/wayfarersjourney/">wayfarer

He stole a quilt square ("Mommy, i need just ONE! (after i said no he couldn't) I need just one. A polka dot one.") He took it to the fridge and hung it and decorated it with the snowflake. Stepped back and said "Pretty." I hadn't looked at what he was doing until he said Pretty. Too funny. I love that he's such a boy and loves all things boy (bugs, cars, construction equipment, trains, etc) but also loves pink, princesses and buttons. The other picture has a felt tree top with apple buttons that he stole from the sewing table and hung up saying "it's art mommy." Big grin from me. It finally made it's way to the shirt but several times went from my table upstairs to the fridge. Stubborn guy.

make a face on the pumpkin
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

I love this drawing. I drew the pumpkin and asked if he wanted to put a face on it. It was the week of Halloween i think. He drew the circle for the face and then added the face, arms and legs. I love the concreteness of the circle to make a face on. He is so orderly/structured about certain things.

And here is his detail oriented side coming out. "Needing" to make a train switch while playing play doh because the trains won't work right otherwise...

train track switch
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

My little engineer. Always building things, breaking things to figure them out and constructing. His latest thing is taking some yarn, attaching it to things around the house and calling it "pipes" - "some go the river, some to the house". He is such a hyper boy but these moments when he slows down and focuses are truly amazing to me. I can't wait to see how his little sister is going to rock his world or totally disrupt it.

Because of all this, i'm going to go through his toys in the next week and get rid of the "stuff". I like this creative side of him and realize that he functions well and more focuses with his prized toys and creative supplies. I won't get rid of his favorite toys (legos, playmobil, trains, blocks etc) but i am going to get rid of the odds and end stuff that accumlates. I'm going to invest in nice art supplies to encourage that and will never cut back on his books because he loves to be read to. I sold a few things on Ebay this past week that i got at the thrift store for usage in the next year or two (Star Wars legos and bionicles). I can't believe we made $100 off $5 that i originally spent. I want him to have good paper to draw on and good art supplies. I would also love to invest in good wood stacking toys for the new littlest one. I hope it doesn't backfire on me! I think i need to take the same approach to my crafting area...reward would be some nice Japanese fabric. Mmmmm.