Life with Leah: Our Little Artist

Leah's favorites: Paul, Cindy, Tiffany, & Benji

Leah has always enjoyed coloring, drawing, painting, and nearly anything crafty. It's recently become clear that not only does she have a passionate interest in drawing, but she's really good at it. Her attention to detail astounds me. She will sit and draw movie, TV, or book characters completely from memory. She rarely ever refers to another picture or DVD cover; she knows the color of everyone's clothing or some random little detail that I never would've remembered had I tried to describe or draw the same characters. It's awesome to watch her create.

Our refrigerator has become a revolving door of Leah's artwork. Every so often, she changes out the pictures, putting up new ones that she especially likes or maybe ones that Dan or I have highly praised. Our dining room table has been covered in drawing paper and crayons. She's gone through most of the drawing paper that our homeschool curriculum sends us for the entire year!

Care Bears

Last week, in an effort to uncover our table again, Leah & I made books of her pictures. Since there were so many, I ended up sorting them into categories: Benji (her current favorite movie/obsession), Clifford, Olivia, pictures she'd drawn specifically for Dan or myself, and pictures that I thought were her best work. There were still a ton left, so I placed the remaining drawings in an extra binder along with her homemade books. It's amazing how many she has amassed in just a couple months.

Another aspect that fascinates me is the fact that I engaged in the same behavior at her age. I would draw and draw and draw all of my favorite characters too: Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins. I drew specific scenes from those movies and when I saw Leah drawing scenes right out of "Benji", I nearly fell over. The similarity is mind-blowing.

End scene of "Benji"

I never told her I did that. It amazes me what is built into her genes, to see pieces of myself in her budding personality. For years, everyone in my family joked about how I would write, "Amanda, I am 5" on all my pictures. Leah hasn't done exactly that, though she does write her name and/or the name of whomever she intends to give the picture. If she starts writing "I am 5" or some variation, I don't think you'll be able to wipe my jaw off the floor! ;)

Some more examples of Leah's recent work: