Blogger Dad » elmo

Everyone’s a critic

Blogger Dad — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:35:24 +0000

I’ve been drawing comics since 2000. My comic strips have loyal readers and have been published in a book, my editorial comics have generated buzz and been mentioned by elected officials and I’ve had my work published in a number of publications. However, the highlight of my drawing career has only happened recently, when I started drawing for my son, E.

We’ve spent a lot of time recently bonding over the Doodle Pro, a magnetic drawing board. Think Etch a Sketch but with an easier-to-use pen tool.

One of my favorite routines is when E climbs into my lap or lays on the floor next to me as I draw things and ask him to tell me what they are.

“Moww” he says for cat, “ba ba” for bottle, and so on.

All of these things bring a giant smile to his face, which is the coolest feeling in the world.

Soon, I started drawing his favorite TV and movie characters.

“Cars?” E says and I draw either Lightning McQueen or Tow Mater, which elicits a huge smile or laugh.

One time, I drew Elmo driving Lightning McQueen with Tow Mater besdie them. E LOVED it! All his favorite things together! Soon, he began requesting that Elmo always be in every picture with the Cars characters.

As much as he loves the drawings, he loves the Doodle Pro’s sliding eraser even more!

What took me five minutes to draw, he erases in one second with a quick swipe.

Then, he hands me the Doodle Pro and asks me to draw Elmo and Cars again! We repeat this process about a dozen more times.

Usually, he’ll take the pen from me before I can finish. He scribbles and dashes (something he picked up after watching me make cross hatches) over my drawings, adding finishing touches, if you will.

Then he’ll point to the drawing and proudly exclaim, “Cars!” as if he drew it.

Time for some old school drawing

On Wednesday, I decided take some pen to paper and draw another of his favorite characters, Curious George. I figured he would probably appreciate a more permanent drawing.

It was a pretty good George, if I do say so myself.

I handed him the drawing, he looked at it and said, “George!”

Big smile on both our faces.

I told him to go show mommy and he shuffled into her office and held up the paper.

“George,” he said, “daddy (indicating that I gave it to him)!”

It was one of the happier father-son moments I’ve had. I was able to use my drawing skill to make my son happy. E walked out of the room, holding his drawing, while my wife and I talked about something. I imagined him holding tightly to his new drawing, like a prized possession, perhaps putting it with his book collection.

As I was talking to my wife, I heard the unmistakable sound of a trash can lid slam shut.

Hmm, what did he throw away?

I went into the kitchen and saw that he was empty handed. I walked over to the trash can, stepped on the button to flip the lid open and there, on top of the trash, a crumpled up Curious George.

And while I know he didn’t know any better and it wasn’t a personal rejection of my drawing, it stung worse than any critique I’ve ever received.

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My plan to avoid watching Cars for eternity

Blogger Dad — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:53:34 +0000

If you’ve been following the blog for the past week, you’ll know that I’m trying to find a way to keep from watching Disney’s Cars every night for the next two years. (Note: Part one of this story is A few updates. Part two is How Cars almost ruined the Super Bowl)

To bring you up to speed: I borrowed Cars for my 21-month old son, E, who had never seen a movie. He LOVED it. So much that he asks to watch EVERY NIGHT with a repeated plea of “Cars?” which is too cute to ignore.

I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing home a movie for my son.

He hardly even likes TV, save for Jack’s Big Music Show and commercials, which he dances to. And no, I’m not talking about commercials with good music. He’ll dance to ANY commercial with anything approaching music. Case in point, Subway’s annoying “Five dollar foot longs” ad campaign which makes me want to ram a screwdriver into my ear.

I had it made. I live in a house with a wife who doesn’t care for TV and a son who more or less ignores it. The remote is pretty much mine. Or was…

Until I brought home Cars, which apparently, is only the BEST MOVIE EVER, according to toddlers.

So I had a genius idea.

I was at the store and saw the movie, Elmo in Grouchland for the bargain price of $5.50. My son loves Elmo on Sesame Street, so I figure if I buy the DVD, it will expand his palette and maybe, just maybe, I could avoid a nightly barrage of “Cars?”

Great idea, right?

I’m fairly certain that I can outsmart a toddler. Right?

Last Monday, while E was finishing dinner in his high chair, I popped the Elmo DVD into the player.

**Goodbye Cars, Elmo is here!**

E’s eyes widened, his mouth agape, as he pointed, yelling at the TV. He lost his mind!

“ELMO!!!!!”

He kept pointing as if to say, “Mommy, daddy, look, it’s ELMO!! Look! Look! Look! Look!”

Then when he saw other characters he recognized, he cried out, “Bird!” and “Ster!” (for Cookie Monster).

So, I guessed he likes the movie. I breathed a sigh of relief, pleased with my purchase. Something I did actually worked!

15 minutes later, as I was getting something in another room, when I heard my son’s soft voice ask his mommy a question.

“Cars?”

Uh-oh.

10 minutes later, we were watching Cars. Again.

Apparently, this movie will be required nightly viewing whether I want it to be or not.

20 minutes later, my son asked, “Elmo?”

Now he wants to watch both!

Every night.

Outsmarted by a toddler.

Usually, I would end the post with a funny (well, semi-funny) one-liner like the one above. However, this story has a bonus.

After watching Elmo search all over Grouchland for his beloved blanket, my son said a new word, “blank-et” as he cuddled his own blue blanket, a huge goofy grin on his face!

I love this kid!

as always, thank you for reading,

david

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