The Shoe

Jack comes to the car with a drawing he did in art class at school. It is a fabulous drawing of his shoe. Really well done. I'm very impressed and trying to remember if at 9 yrs old I could draw like that, and I think the answer is "no." So he tosses the 11x17 sheet of paper up in front of my face as he gets into the car and says, "I don"t think this is very good." (Begging for compliments, which is not at all necessary because like I said, it is a very well done drawing) I decide not to play into his little game though and I say, "Really, why?" He says, "Oh, I don't know, its a little dark." I say "Actually I believe it is quite a good drawing, and I know that you must also believe it is a good drawing, so why all the dramatics to beg for compliments, it isn't necessary." He gets a funny look on his face and then begins to tell me, "Well, ya, I did feel a little like Hanna Montanna with all those kids gathered around my desk while I was drawing it. They kept saying how good it was, and how they couldn't believe I could do that. And my art teacher told me it was really good too. And I told everyone that my mom teaches me art and that you EXpired me, so you better feel good about that after all I went through." Ok, what does that even mean? I mean, yes I get that he meant to say "INspired, not EXpired" and I hope he didn't tell his class that I teach him his grammar too, but why is he threatening me to feel good about his praise of me "after all I went through"....what? after all you went through having to enjoy attention and get complimented by every kid in your class, or "after all you went through" having to say out loud that it was your mom's inspiration that made you great? I have a hard time getting him sometimes. But I will say this, I'm so happy to have a little budding artist to mentor! He and I need things to connect on, and Art and Music may be those things. So, I bought these awesome frames and framed some of the kids' artwork for the basement, and when Jack came into the room and saw his framed shoe, his excitement was all over his face and lips as he started saying how cool that it was and calling his brother in to see it. Glad I could make him so happy, since right after that he wanted to kill me for making him rewrite 6 sentences for homework that were unreadable. Oh, Jack, life is a roller coaster with you, my little pal.