We have this children's book entitled Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse about a little mouse who absolutely LOVES her schoolteacher, Mr. Slinger. One day, Mr. Slinger has to disclipine Lilly for misbehavior in class and she does not respond kindly. She draws a pretty nasty picture of him and leaves it at school so he can see just how livid she is about being punished. But, at the end of the day, he says kindly to her that today was a little rough but tomorrow would be better. She feels pretty stupid, wishing she could take it all back.
The other day Rachel put a spoonful of yogurt into Anna's full glass of milk at breakfast. Anna was repulsed. She immediately requested a "clean" glass of milk at which point I informed her that the size of Rachel's spoonful was so minute in comparison to the amount of milk that she wouldn't even notice it. She refused to even taste it and instead threw it into the sink, asking again for a clean glass of milk. I told her it was a waste and that I wouldn't indulge her in that luxury when she wouldn't even try the original milk.
She seemed annoyed, but I didn't realize the magnitude of her upset until yesterday, when I discovered a drawing that had a picture of Anna telling me "I don't like you." I asked her to tell me about it. She grabbed it away, with no intention of telling me. I prodded again. She related, barely whispering, "Remember the other day when you wouldn't pour me another glass of milk? Well, I drew this then." I chuckled. She chuckled back. I said, "It's probably not a good idea to draw mean pictures of people that you'll probably regret. Don't you feel kind of silly now that I found it?" "Yeah," she agreed. We laughed again.
I haven't even gotten to the best part. I noticed that the grown-up in the picture (me) had a stick figure drawn onto her large belly and two big circles in the chest area. The little girl (Anna) had two small dots in her chest area. I asked Anna why she had drawn boobs on me. She replied, "Because you have them." I reasoned, "Well, I have arms, too, and you didn't bother drawing those." Again, we laughed together.
2 comments:
I love this book (and all of Kevin Henkes' books for that matter).
What a hilarious experience. I'm impressed at how you handled it.
Awesome story.
Sydney has noticed her boobs too lately and loves drawing comparisons about how mine are so big and hers are still growing. I have a hard time not laughing at her when she changes clothes now. She will grab ahold of her chest and cover it with her little palms, mommy mommy don't show my boobs!
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