Peeps.
M’peeps.
We are nearly eight—EIGHT—years into the life of this here blog (crazy, and kinda mind-blowing, in and of itself).
And since its inception, the same five categories have existed (well, one might have been added within the first year or so), in terms of labeling posts:
- Random
- Milestones/Events
- Trouble-shooting
- Weekly Pics
- Projects
For realsies, pretty much all of our life happenings have fit within one of those five categories for all of these past eight years—‘cause, really, what can’t fall within “random,” amiright?? ;) And even though the “weekly pics” category only applied to the first year of m’babies’ lives, I won’t ever remove that label, ha.
So...five categories have served us all this time.
And recently, I’ve sort of thought about adding one labeled “design” or “decor” or something related to all of our home/renovation/honey-do what nots, but...I just haven’t been able to commit.
Until now.
But to a completely different label about a completely different topic:
DOODLES.
If there are two major buckets of memories I’ll vary with me always, from this springtime 2020 distancing/quarantine, it will probably be bike riding, and doodling.
Ah, doodling...how we love thee.
Our love affair with this fun art outlet literally began way back on DAY 2 of our quarantine, if you can believe it.
It all started with our now-beloved children’s book author, Mo.
And for the rest of my life, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that special, cocooned, we’re-in-this-together feeling of joining in each day and listening to his calm, encouraging, and funny (for the benefit of parents) humor.
It was early days of quarantine, when we were eager to all band together in these strange times and find the sparks of new activities and experiences that could connect us, and I felt like we hit a mini jackpot by joining in on this lovely bandwagon.
You can read all about our early forays into doodling, here:
http://delappenings.blogspot.com/2020/03/day-2-doodle-time.html?m=1
http://delappenings.blogspot.com/2020/03/day-2-doodle-time.html?m=1
And we stuck with Mo for the entire three weeks that he conducted a daily “show”—and were devastated when it came to an end. Though I don’t think at the start of it all, any of us knew just how long this distancing would continue. And certainly not Mo, who probably never planned to continue a daily video indefinitely!
So by the close of the first month of quarantine, we had to find a new drawing outlet, and we hit another jackpot with a really lovely, existing resource—complete with endless how-to videos already posted for many years now. So we’ve got oodles of doodles to sort through, tehe.
If you’re interested, here’s the post about our new doodle resource:
So...long and short:
We’ve sort of fallen in love with this daily drawing time of ours.
It’s part of our routine, every single day that we can swing it (of course we have an off-schedule day here or there), and it’s really become special and fun around our household.
We usually doodle shortly after lunch, before quiet time, and we take turns within the family, in terms of getting to select the drawing we’ll complete for the day. It’s all a very happy, well-oiled machine at this point, and I lurv it. And I foresee it continuing for a long time to come.
Of course, I could probably just label any of my doodle posts under “projects,” but I just don’t wanna.
I want our drawings to have a little landing place on this here blog—for however length of time they continue into the future.
So at some point in the next week or two, I’ll probably go back and change the post labels on some of our early doodle times. And moving forward, here they’ll be. :)
Now. Lastly, on this doodle, catch-all post, I just have to take a minute to talk about the beautiful creativity that pops within each of my kiddos while we do this activity.
With Chicklet...she often races ahead to draw whatever we’re tackling for the day as she sees fit within her amazing brain, without necessarily waiting on specific instructions.
And then, nearly every single day, after we’ve completed the drawing and coloring, she takes her little kid-scissors and cuts the picture out. And has such a blast carrying it around places, or having the drawing interact with other objects in some way. And I just adore it. And, yay, for mastering scissor skills! She’s a total PRO.
Little Man, on the other hand...now being the youngest of my babies, he’s really on the cutting edge of participation, and I feel like it’s really something to challenge him.
And then, nearly every single day, after we’ve completed the drawing and coloring, she takes her little kid-scissors and cuts the picture out. And has such a blast carrying it around places, or having the drawing interact with other objects in some way. And I just adore it. And, yay, for mastering scissor skills! She’s a total PRO.
Little Man, on the other hand...now being the youngest of my babies, he’s really on the cutting edge of participation, and I feel like it’s really something to challenge him.
He love, love, loves watching the videos at the end, when he gets to see the fast-forwarded coloring of the finished drawing. It’s literally his favorite bit.
And it’s also hilarious that most days, he’s the first to complete his drawing, because he knows he finally gets his iPad for the day for an hour of quiet time, right after doodle time, hehe. He’s no dummy. ;) He’s getting his completion grade so he can get his electronics, ha.
And then Chica...she’s my by-the-book artist. She really follows along in precise detail, challenging herself to get it exactly as its depicted on screen. And I adore her rich saturation of color with every drawing, because she makes sure to press down really hard with the crayons. :)
Also...it should be noted that she almost always writes on the page the “title” of the drawing, never fails to add our beloved date stamp in the corner for documentation, and usually signs her name in cursive to her artwork, as well.
And me...well, I just do my best and enjoy the fun of the time with my babies:
Oh, and, Nanna! You know, Nanna was social distancing down here with us for the first couple weeks of the quarantine, so she was here in person at the start of our doodle time.
And then Chica...she’s my by-the-book artist. She really follows along in precise detail, challenging herself to get it exactly as its depicted on screen. And I adore her rich saturation of color with every drawing, because she makes sure to press down really hard with the crayons. :)
Also...it should be noted that she almost always writes on the page the “title” of the drawing, never fails to add our beloved date stamp in the corner for documentation, and usually signs her name in cursive to her artwork, as well.
And me...well, I just do my best and enjoy the fun of the time with my babies:
Oh, and, Nanna! You know, Nanna was social distancing down here with us for the first couple weeks of the quarantine, so she was here in person at the start of our doodle time.
And when she reported that she’d probably continue on her own once she was back home (because drawing is so lovely and cathartic!), we took it as our chance to include her from far, when possible. :)
So there you have it...the inception and continuation of our doodle-now-drawing, but-will-always-be-doodle-to-us time.
So there you have it...the inception and continuation of our doodle-now-drawing, but-will-always-be-doodle-to-us time.
A new blog label after all these years. :)
And now...a few of our finished doodle products from this week:
You can usually tell when it’s Little Man’s turn to select the drawing because it’s usually boy-centric, hehe.
Also, I hilariously love that we drew mean Thanos right before online church (and the kiddos’ simultaneous tea party) on Sunday, ha.
Then a stack of puppies, complete with a paper-fold trick:
And baby Jack Jack, from Incredibles, hehe.
So...three cheers for doodle time, and may it long live!
Over and out.
P.S. I would be remiss in not mentioning that if Mo taught us one thing during our original doodling time, it’s that there’s a difference between doodling and drawing. Doodles are unplanned creations that take on a life of their own, while drawings are planned.
We know this and we’re grateful Mo taught us this technicality. But it will always all be “doodle time” to us. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment