A Gingerbread Man

A Gingerbread Man

I got in very late last night after being delayed at the Phoenix airport for over 3 hours. I was tired and groggy this morning. "Pick something easy today," I said flatly.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm really tired after coming home super late last night."

He thought for about a minute, then said, "A gingerbread man."

Perfect, I thought picturing a simple drawing to copy.

I was going to draw a classic gingerbread man without even asking him, but decided against it. He's the picker, not me. I showed him a classic, but of course he didn't like it. He continued searching for something else. After some time he said, "How about you draw the outside and I do the design? I do great designs."

Perfect, I thought again.

The outline wasn't easy to get right. I usually struggle with symmetrical drawings like this one and today was no different. I messed up on the legs and had to throw out my first try. My second try was even worse.

"Dad, do you know what I'm gonna do?"

"Uh, no."

He didn't tell me. He just got to work. I busied myself and didn't oversee his drawing like last time. This was more of a creative exercise.

"Dad is this good?" he asked after he finished with the arms and face.

"I like it!" I said with genuine enthusiasm. It's been very cool to see him take over lately.

"Dad, how do you spell ornaments?" he asked out of the blue.

"Uh," I looked at his drawing to see a lot going on. "Sometimes less is more Victor! If you put too much stuff people won't know what it is," I said trying to be helpful.

The next time I walked by to check up on his progress, I saw a bag in the gingerbread man's hand labeled "onamins for sall."

"You should have asked me to help you spell it," I said, then realized that he had. We tried our best to fix "sale" and decided to just leave the rest as it was. He's not often bothered by leaving his inventive spelling on the page over the correct spelling.

"Will I have time to watch a show?" he asked.

"No, look at the time."

"But that's because I'm doing this, right?"

"Yes. You've been great this morning and I'm very proud of you doing your own snack sack."

I left him for another few minutes. When I came back I saw that he hadn't taken my advice. Instead, he had added many more things to the drawing. As he continued to draw he told a story of how it was getting cold and windy and how the birds were flying south for the winter. His imagination knows no bounds. His letters found their way scattered throughout the drawing with the sneaky R being his usual sneaky self. He only stopped drawing when we ran out of time.