And Then I Stepped in Gum . . .

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Fine Motor Skills, Still Under Development

Ian (now three years old -- remind me sometime to regale you with tales of the dinosaur birthday party) is working on his fine motor skills. He likes to sit and draw . . . asteroids. And sometimes shooting stars (I'm not the only geek in the family). Mostly, I think it's because he tries to draw circles, and they come out slightly lumpy, so he dubs them asteroids. The alternate interpretation to his drawings (i.e., his response to the question, "What is this a picture of, Ian?") is that it's "some kind of a fingy-ma-jigger." But mostly he goes with asteroids.

At church the other day, during the Time for All Ages, when they invite the kids to the front of the service for a story or some kid-targeted activity before releasing them to Religious Education, the four kids that were present were asked to draw on a flipchart. The lay minister asked Katie to draw a picture of herself, which she dutifully did. Then Ian pipes up from his position on the floor, "Well, I can only dwaw astewoids, so I'm going to have to dwaw an astewoid." And draw an asteroid he did. This cracked the congregation up -- he's now a star at church.

Then a couple of days ago, he found a Blue's Clues notebook, and decided to play Blue's Clues around the house. He walked up to Dave.

"We're going to pway Bwue's Cwues. Our first cwue is . . . ice!" Pause. "How do you draw ice?"

Dave explained it to him, and Ian concentrated on his notebook, tongue sticking out, as he tried to follow the instructions and draw a picture of ice. Apparently, it wasn't as successful as he wanted it to be, as his next remark was, "Actually, our first cwue is an astewoid."

So maybe I don't have to worry about my perfectionist genes showing up in this one. He seems to roll with the punches.