Monet? No Way! I'd Take The Kids' Paintings Any Day!

My kids' art work is priceless to me, yet now that I really think about the title to this page, I have to be honest that if someone really offered to trade me one of their paintings for one by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, I probably would. Come on, I could pay for both of their college tuitions, Ella's wedding, an inground pool, a Hummer. . .

At 15 months Ella made her 1st true masterpiece. She had of course done many a craft before, but this was something special. I went to Michael's and bought a canvas and let her have at it. I love this picture of her because you can see the pride in her eyes and even though she's so tiny, she gives off this impression that she's done this a thousand times. This is in contrast to Dawson, who also did one such painting at 15 months (no, I'm not sentimental, it was completely by accident that they did this at the same age). It just cracks me up to see them "side by side" and how different they are. Dawson is such a big baby still and I can't even imagine him standing there holding his painting like Ella did. Dawson ate a decent amount of paint during his project, which may have fostered a depth of creativity that he wouldn't have been able to tap into had he not ingested it. Ella never put stuff in her mouth as a baby/tot, yet it never bothered her one bit to be messy, dirty, sticky. In contrast, Dawson is very selective about what he touches which is one reason he is a carb freak. Bread is dry therefore good. Peaches, turkey, grean beans, bananas and so on are wet, and are therefore icky and bad. Yet when I was painting the dining room yesterday, Dawson was so distraught at the sight of my paint splashed shirt that he started crying. He kept pointing at the stains and saying "uck, uck" with tears rolling down his face. He doesn't mind snacking on paint, but heaven forbid if it's on someones clothes. They are so different, so unique, so wonderfully and perfectly who they were created to be. They are little masterpieces themselves, the handiwork of an amazing God.