A Picture for a Smile

I am one who still frequently uses a pen and notepad to capture to-do lists, meeting notes, calculations and general things to remember.  I’m a faster typer and have grown to have messy penmanship, but this is still my preferred method for these types of things.  Typing on my laptop seems disruptive in meetings and, well, a pad of paper and a pen are easy to grab in a rush.  Plus, to be honest, I’m pretty old school.  I recently asked our high school intern at my company if they still use chalkboards or if it’s all whiteboards these days.

I worked from home yesterday and had a hand-written to-do list from which I was working.  I had my laptop on the island in the kitchen and the pad of paper that held this hand-written to-do list just to the right of it.  Typical of most work-at-home days, I got a lot of stuff done but not nearly as much as I had wanted before heading out to pick the kids up from school; so I left my laptop and pad of paper out on the island with the intention of picking up the work after putting the kids to bed.

When we got home from school, I had the kids sitting with me at the island looking at my laptop.  I had promised Cal I’d show him the “thumb guard” we’ve been threatening to buy to help curb his thumb sucking (gloves, pillows, hot sauce, positive reinforcement are not working), so I found it on a website, showed him a picture of it and described to him how it works.  I even showed him a view of the teeth of a non-thumbsucker and those of a thumbsucker, to which he had no reaction. (Note: the thumb guard will surely be a post for later – once Dan and I can swallow the $70 price tag, we’ll be buying one.)

Done with computer "fun," I left Cal sitting at the island with my pen and notepad so I could turn my attention to fixing dinner and managing Ella, now screaming for me to pick her up, off the ledge.

I didn’t watch him but periodically peeked in on Cal as he drew on my notepad.  He started with letters and numbers and some miscellaneous scribbles on my to-do list.  He then moved to a new sheet and drew a monster.  Next, he announced he’d draw a princess and then proceeded to do so, tagging the sheet as “Ella.” After that he quickly drew Batman (I needed help identifying that one but clearly saw it once I knew who it was – I told him that the cape and mask are clearly Batman’s).  Last, he drew the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Willie the Giant standing next to it.  I smiled and praised him for his work, and then he took the notepad with him as he went to sit on the couch, I figured to draw some more.

Ella was still screaming at this time, and I had barely made a dent in fixing dinner.  With Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in my head, I asked the kids if they’d like to “watch a Mickey.”  No surprises – they both did.  So we all sat on the couch and watched the “Mickey’s Show and Tell” episode together.  Ella stopped crying and was smiling as she stood up and sat down, stood up and sat down, stood up and sat down. And Cal, as is usually the case, had his eyes glued to the TV for the episode.

With Ella pleasantly distracted, I used the second half of the episode to fix dinner, which ended up being Mickey chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and some mixed veggies.  We ate, cleaned up the kitchen and then headed upstairs for “jammie time.”  To state it that simply is being ridiculously misleading.  Getting us all upstairs and into bed had many challenges and, frankly, put me over the top.  Once I got the kids into bed, I did the whole “I’ll just lay down on the bed for 10 minutes” thing, which almost always ends up being at least an hour and oftentimes extends into the morning. I managed to get myself up after an hour and headed downstairs to pack up my laptop, notepad and folders to take to work with me the next day.  No more work was going to be done last night.

I had a meeting first thing in the morning where I man the presentation, rendering my laptop unusable for note-taking. This is fine with me since, again, I am old school and do hand-written meeting notes. When I pulled out my notepad to page to the next blank sheet, I came upon Cal's drawings. I had forgotten about them over the course of the evening and the morning, which almost made it like I was seeing them for the first time. I smiled as I looked at each one. I proudly showed them to my boss. I shared one with a co-worker who was sad and sent one to Dan to make him smile, too.

Cal's pictures always make me smile - what a wonderful gift and start of my day!  Here are the pictures - do they have the same effect on you?

1. Letters, numbers and miscellaneous scribbles:

2. Monster:

 

3. Princess Ella:



4. Batman:



5. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Willie the Giant standing next to it. It looks to me like he also tried to draw Mickey but became frustrated with that: