Saturday, September 20, 2014

Ars Brevis

This warm September afternoon, Joy was playing on the computer.  She's come a long way from the "click and pull" revelation of January-before-last, to the point that she navigates all over the place, very competently.  Sometimes she even likes the navigating better than the content at any given page!

I was working on my laptop nearby, but not quite paying enough attention to notice that there was some ball-point pen usage going on in addition to the computer games.  When it was time to go upstairs, suddenly I noticed that Joy had scribbled all over one of her shorts-clad legs.

Since I haven't been in blogging mode and don't post much about Joy on Facebook, taking a photo didn't cross my mind.  Instead my thoughts went immediately to strategies for cleaning up, given that I hadn't planned a bath for this evening.  I was inordinately proud at my success in making clean-up an interactive game on the couch, scrubbing with a wipe and then waiting for Joy to prompt me to scrub again.

It wasn't till the pen-marks were all gone that it hit me.

Could I remember one single time where Joy had picked up a pen and drawn something, ANYTHING, on her own with no prompting from a parent or sister or anyone?

No, I couldn't.  Not other than iPad drawing games.  I asked JoyDad, he couldn't either.

Her very first unprompted pen-and-ink drawing... and I had effaced it almost immediately, with not so much as a photo for the record.

Art is fleeting.

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(As I'm typing this, I look up at the computer where she's game-playing again... and it's a "Peg & Cat" drawing program.)

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