Amie has been drawing her tadpoles consistently, but for one major change. A week ago she started drawing their mouths underneath, that is, outside the head. Consistently. I asked her one day, when she was about to put down the mouth:
“Amie, look, where is Mama’s mouth? Is it inside my face or outside?”
I even pointed at my mouth.
“Outside,” she said, and she drew a biiiiig smile underneath the head.
Strange, no? I am thinking of two possible and related explanations. 1. Mouths and especially smiles are very important to her, the most important facial features (the eyes and nose are three hurriedly placed dots). So they deserve a special, separate place. 2. She may not have drawn a circle (head) big enough to contain that all-important mouth. So it needs to go outside it.
It makes her drawings look very funny, since the legs are still attached to the “chin” and are now drawn through the mouth.
The above represents Number One from the movie Monsters Inc. Number One, or Roz, is a snail, so perhaps the wavy line underneath is her slimy trail. Amie couldn’t enlighten me when I asked.
She drew the next one in the same session:
They often get to lie on their sides because she draws the circle for the head first and she doesn’t yet think ahead to the legs. It doesn’t really bother her, though.
For the next one, also from the same session, you don’t need labels.
She isn’t exclusively drawing tadpoles, however. There is still her ongoing experimentation with color and the sheer motor experience of drawing:
