Rain Rubble Earthlings

A friend ask Sky to draw a picture of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow with a monster on it. I suppose you could say it was his first commissioned piece. He'd never seen a picture of St. Basil's, so I showed him one on the Internet. Within an hour, he'd drawn this:

Ren and I thought something this violent might jeopardize any future political ambitions, so we suggested he tone it down a bit. Thirty minutes later, he'd created this somewhat tamer scene: 

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Not to be outdone by her brother, Pink created her own version of a monster attacking St. Basil's only her monster was a cute "bat monster," and he was met by a giant bird, a unicorn, and a pegasus:

*****

My kids are always drawing, and a lot of times their ingenuity their ability to communicate so clearly with their art kind of blows my mind. Today when I went to tuck Pink into bed, I found this:

Pink P's guide to calming down when you're sad. Have you ever seen sadder people? She proffers all sorts of advice in her book. In this illustrated guide, she suggests hugging Mom, kissing Mom, playing with a beloved toy, watching a favorite TV show, and even screaming into your pillow.

If none of those work, you can always chew on something:

Though I suggest chewing on something slightly less larger than your head.

Or, take a nap:

With your pink pillow of course.

Mostly, though, she thinks you should just calm yourself down already. I mean, sheesh, you shouldn't need a picture for that.

Here's the thing...Just when I think the hard parts of parenting are about to get the best of me, I stumble across something they've done that's unexpected and insightful, and I am reminded that being a mom is so much more than slogging through the muck of things like early morning bento making and argument refereeing!

Thank goodness, too. Without their quirky creativity, I'm not sure I could keep my sense of humor especially when I seem to spend ALL of my free time writing strongly-worded e-mails to school. [Today alone, I wrote one message to Pink's principal suggesting they find better ways to celebrate Earth Day than by giving toys only to the kids who purchase "hot lunch" (but not to the ones like Pink who can't eat hot lunch due to allergies) and a series of e-mails to Sky's teacher troubleshooting ways to make sure he is adequately supported in his attempts to advocate for himself when he's being picked on.]

So, RAIN RUBBLE EARTHLINGS! There's nothing in this world a few well-placed monsters and a couple of unexpected drawings can't fix.