Writing & Drawing

 Four weeks ago, Luca drew her first (as far as I know) human figure. I walked by the table and was shocked! She had only just begun to "stay within the lines" when coloring so to see a recognizable person with a rainbow dress on was pretty amazing. (And no, I don't think she's left-handed...she seems to use both hands equally for drawing but predominantly the right for writing.) Notice rainbow girl has eyeshadow to match her dress...

 Soon after that lovely person, Luca drew this funny guy (love the eyebrows and nose) "standing in the sun with his friends".

And then her first family portrait (Daddy and Court have the spiky hair).

More recently we've seen Angels,

Spiders (happy spiders) in the grass. Luca always includes dirt beneath her grass.

and hand prints, tracing around her fingers all by herself. (Yes, her hands end up with more color on them than the paper does.) I pointed out that sometimes hand prints can look like birds and she filled one in as such.

And this is a painting of an eye that I love because it looks very "Ancient Egyptian" to me.

A few weeks ago I brought out some magnetic letters for Luca to play with. She had been very particular about always having her name written on the back of her drawings and was beginning to write legible L's and U's. (Court is, as you can imagine, very helpful with magnets.)

 

What I expected the magnets to be used for was things like this: (an angel and a flower)

What has happened though is that Luca has become obsessed with letters. She writes her name on everything and can now also write my name and Joe's and if I spell it for her, Court's. 

Exhibit A:

She made her name out of sticks (completely unprompted and without help):

 And last weekend she asked me "what letters make Isaiah's name and Miya's name?" so from across the room I spelled them.  (If she can't remember how to write a letter she runs to the fridge and grabs the right magnet and traces it, that's why the "M" has to perfectly symmetrical humps.)

Exhibit B:

 

 It is so incredible how quickly little minds can soak up knowledge. Now whenever we drive around town I hear questions from the backseat like "what letters are that red sign about?" and "what letter is a wrong U and a long line?" (answer to that one: an "h". I figured out that "wrong U" meant "upside down U")

Needless to say, the markers and a substantial stack of paper are never far from the dining room table these days.