My Son, the Artist

It amazes me how different my children are.  Tes is such a girl and Christian is such a boy.  Aside from that they also have completely different senses of humor, sleep patterns, and views of the world around them.  However, there are ways in which they are very similar.  One of their biggest areas of common interest is art.  They both love to create, whether by painting, coloring, or drawing.  I have piles and plies of artwork that Tessie has created from a  very early age on.  I don’t have nearly as much collected yet for Christian and the reason is simple.  He hasn’t been able to control his body enough to really make art. 

There are two things making it hard for Christian to work on art projects.  The first is his low tone in his trunk, meaning he can’t sit up unsupported.  The second is his fine motor delay, meaning he has a hard time holding small objects like crayons or markers.  We have had success with finger-painting, although Christian was very curious about how the paint tasted and I eventually had to take a time out from the medium.  What Christian really wants to play with are crayons.  He is always asking for crayons and wanting to draw.  After finally growing out of the constantly-eating-crayons stage we have been trying to color more often.  Usually he will grip the crayon with his whole fist and mimic the back and forth motion his sister makes, but this just results in his knuckles brushing the paper and little or no crayon marks appearing.  This leads to him getting frustrated and mad.

Today he really wanted to color and so I set him up with a big sheet of paper and a selection of crayons.  I watched as he picked up the crayon in a much more sophisticated grasp, sat up tall and made a big dark line across the paper.  He was delighted, as was I, at this new-found skill.  He proceeded to change colors, techniques and created a wonderful work of art.  Christian was so pleased with himself and giggled with joy when I hung his artwork up in his bedroom.  I love art, I cry in art museums.  And of all the art I have seen, my son’s creation this morning was the most beautiful by far.