Coloring

Eliana still loves to draw and color. And she distinguishes between the two and actually does different things when she says she is drawing than when she says she's coloring. Drawing is apparently done with a pen and involves single strokes that form lines and jaggedy circles. Coloring is done with crayons or markers and results in small patches of color scattered about a page. She puts a little color here and a little color there until the whole page is eventually filled up. Yes, she loves to color.

To add a little variety into the coloring setup (and because she normally draws or colors at the kitchen table and her paper slides all around, often falling off the table) I cut off a piece of newsprint from an end roll we got at the Chronicle (for only $2!) and secured it to the card table using tablecloth clips (or whatever you call those plastic things that clip a table cloth to a picnic table). Then I sat her down and let her color away... and she loved it! We've done it a few times since, including one morning when she had a friend over to play.

In fact, Eliana loves to color so much that her friend got up and left the table and played for a while, then came out and asked Ellie if she wanted to play. Ellie kindly, but firmly, said, "No. I'm coloring." and kept on coloring for another 20 minutes or so! She loves to color.

One of my favorite things is to watch her while she's coloring. She is very deliberate about where she chooses to color, and she will reach as faaaaar as she can to get the right color in the right place. And when she is done coloring, she is done. I'm not sure if it's because she is tired of coloring or because her masterpiece is finished, but she is emphatic about it!

(I love this last picture with the look of "Oh! Did I miss a spot?" on her face!)