No – the title wouldn’t be my words…they’re S’s.  And they’re true.

He has been “drawn” to drawing (sorry, couldn’t resist) since we first met him in Addis Ababa…we had brought drawing pads and crayons with us, thinking they might amuse our new boys on the flight back, and S sat down immediately, and drew lots and lots of really remarkable pictures.

He draws constantly.  His representations become ever more complex.  He is proud of the fact that he adds “details”, and that his little brother doesn’t.

We often ask S to draw a picture as a present for various people, and after this season of gift receiving, we had him draw pictures for relatives who sent him gifts for Hanukkah.  He sent a picture to his Bubbe, and today we received a lovely and very complimentary letter from her back to him, referring to him as an artist!!  He clearly took her words to heart…

After his bedtime story, he stayed up for about 45 minutes creating this book.  He carefully annotated each page:

Title page:

1. here is S— I M drawing a picture
2. I’m drawing a picture for my teacher (bottom of first page)
3. I’m drawing a picture for my brother
4. I’m drawing a picture for my mom
5. I’m drawing a picture for my dad.

It’s all done in pencil…not sure if he plans to add color tomorrow.  He was so pleased with his spelling – he actually tried to sound everything out, but then checked with me.  His own attempt to sound out the word “drawing” came out “jrn” … I get it!

I love that he has such a talent, and I always end up thinking about how, had he remained in the place where he was born, he probably wouldn’t have attended school, and would never have had the opportunity to explore his artistic talents.  Life is so strange.