Of Routines and Ruts

Last Wednesday saw someone face down on the bedroom floor sobbing 'I hate bedtime, I hate bedtime, I hate bedtime'.  

Was it four year old Grace, known to resist the lure of those cosy sheets?  

Was it five year old Nina, tuckered out after a day of learning? 

Was it seven year old Ruby having an uncharacteristic tantrum?  

Or was it forty year old Julie, worn down by the return to work and the prospect of hours of patting and feeding and cajoling and begging and pleading and entreating and threatening and bargaining and bribing to get these four little girls to sleep?

Written and Illustrated

Ruby wants to be a writer and an illustrator when she grows up. She likes to sit at the table and draw whilst narrating a story, some of which she records in speech bubbles coming from the characters she's drawn.

It's all pretty stream-of-consciousness and doesn't make a lot of sense unless she tells you what is going on and points to the appropriate bubble in sequence. Graphic novels would be right up her alley.
Posh ladies who are mean to poor but virtuous people are a current theme.

As are playground bullies who are stood up to by their smaller but feisty victims.

She writes  'conventional' books too.  The Jibber Jabber sisters was a semi-collaborative effort with Nina. They started at the beginning of 2010 and finished at the end, working on it every now and then.

She's mastered the conventions of the novel. Chapters include "Get to Know the Jibber Jabber Sisters";  "Trouble for the Jibber Jabber Sisters" and "Run For It Jibber Jabber Sisters!". 

Jabber Jabber Sisters page view

The back cover reads "A Ruby and Nina Classic".  Indeed.
  
Lately we've been reading the Little House books and her drawings and imaginative play have taken a distinctly old fashioned turn. (oh we've also been watching The Railway Children and reading Ivy & Bean - can you tell?)

Peter (nickname Pete), Ivery (nickname Ivy), Jonathan (nickname John), Mother (nickname Ma), Roberta (nickname Bobie), Beatres (nickname Bean)

I am all the more intrigued by her drawings because in them I recognise nothing of myself, or my own drawing style. It's her very own thing.  They say that the child at seven reveals the adult to come.  I can't help hoping so.

Lily Lily Lumpkin

Because this blog is mostly about the stuff we create, Lily, 16 months, doesn't get much of a look in.  This one is just for me, may I never forget the chubby curves of that baby neck, those soft curls, that hearty pirate laugh...

Out from the Mob

This little fellow must have got separated from his mob.

Nina's kangeroo

 No wonder he looks a little lonely.

Nina's kangeroo

I think he'd better come home with us.

Amazing Grace

I am  interested in the different ways in which children draw and develop their own sense of the world and how to record it.
My girls have, inevitably, been inspired by each other, but also have their own distinctive styles.  With Grace, my third daughter, I am especially enjoying the familiarity of seeing each stage emerge - the move from scribbles, to scribbles with names, to form, to the adding in of details (eyelashes, cheeks, fingers) -  as well as the uniquely 'Grace' way she has of doing things.

Girl, flowers, rainbow

Rainbows are a common theme in her drawings at the moment, as are flowers and stars.  Those three fingered hands kill me. 

Girl with fireworks and hearts

I like that anatomical correctness is not important.  Soon enough she will never draw a person without arms but this girl is right, just as she is.  The conforming of the child to artistic conventions is always slightly heartbreaking.

 

Map to the shops

When granny was minding her, Grace thought it might be useful to draw a map to show her the way to our local shops.  Sometimes she brings her various maps when we go out and instructs me; "just around this corner, yep, and then another corner, yep, here we are".

Signed by the artist

One of her first autographed drawings.  It's a great day indeed, in the life of a child, when they can write and recognise their own name.  Now she points out letters that occur in her name that she sees in other words.  It's a cause for excitement each time.

Once she mastered her name she moved on to copying other words.  'Fairy'  and 'Nina' were obvious, but 'Foleys' was a mystery until I realised it is on a free mouse pad I use.

Plasticine mouse

Three fingers are obviously just right.

Pictionary Wizard

Now that she is a confident drawer she can join in games of Pictionary.

Rapunzel

She was insistent that the Prince be doing the raking.  And look - five fingers!  It's happened already.
On the Monday she turned four, on the Tuesday she rode a pedal bike without training wheels for the first time and just took off, on the Wednesday she went to kinder, kissed me and said "I'm going outside" without a backward glance.

I walk the line

I try to walk the line between adorable and nauseating.  Sometimes I'm sure I cross it.  Here is Parsley from a pattern by the great Ric-Rac.

Parsley has tea

I've never stooped to doing mother/daughter ensembles, but daughter/toy ensembles?  oh yeah, done those....

Lily's pinafore and Parsley's dress