The school that H goes to is particularly good about exposing the kids to art, including music, visual art, and dance.  When we go to pick H up in the evening, we notice new works of toddler art that adorn the walls of the school.  The very first art piece that Holden brought home from school was a painting that he did sometime in October.  I was so touched when I first saw it—I had only ever used crayons with Holden at home.  Painting with a young toddler seemed so ambitious!  Yet when I looked at his painting, I could immediately visualize his fat little fingers smacking the sticky canvas.  I thought about how he probably loved the whole experience (except for having dirty fingers, which he HATES).  Tonight, I framed Holden’s first painting and will be hanging it in his room sometime this week:

Isn’t it awesome?!  He’s brought a few other works of art home since this inaugural painting, but none have really compared to this one.  Nevertheless, I am going to keep a scrapbook of everything he brings home from school.  I can’t bear to part with them.

This reminds me of one of my neighbors from when I was a kid.  I uniformly adored the other mothers in my childhood neighborhood, and one of the mothers relayed to my parents that she kept every single drawing or painting that her kids made.  I can totally relate to this behavior now—throwing these pieces out is too much like discarding a fleeting part of your baby to which you will never again have access.