King Crominus from LEGO Legends of Chima

"What should we do today?"

He sat thinking for a few seconds. "What do you think it should be?"

"I don't know. I don't decide." I had a feeling this wasn't going to be an easy process today.

"Right. You're the drawer. I'm the brainstormer."

"That's right."

"I want someone with a big butt."

"Um, I don't think so."

"How about a bomb?"

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"A volcano!"

"We've done lots of volcanos." We had done at least one, two, three.

"But they look fake. Do a real volcano."

"No."

"I want a really tall building."

"Which one?"

"I don't know. Give me an idea."

"We've already done tall buildings." We had. Early on we did both the Empire State Building and the Burj Khalifa. "Why don't you think of something new?" I prodded.

"A sponge. SpongeBob!"

"We've done SpongeBob."

"I want a character that is out of his mind. Something that is completely insane. Did we do Patrick?"

"Yup, we've done Patrick."

He thought for a few more seconds. "LEGO Chima," he blurted out.

"Finally, you pick something different." I did a search and handed him my iPhone. He picked something and I couldn't tell what it was. "What is that?"

"You don't know LEGO Chima do you?"

"No."

"That's why you don't know what it is."

"I can't see anything. What is this?"

"You need to turn it."

"Oh." I turned it to the correct orientation, feeling dumb. I had to look it up to find out that this is King Crominus, the leader of the Crocodile tribe. Of course he is, I thought.

We sat drawing, side by side, again this morning, just like yesterday -- me working on the snack sack, he working on his pop art drawing project. Today he was coloring it in.

"Finished," I announced.

"Whoa! That looks pretty much exactly like it. Oh, it looks exactly like it!" he said excitedly. It was refreshing to receive nothing but praise. He took a look at his name. "Oh, you should have added the...Can I add something?"

"Sure."

He took out a light blue marker and added the glowing orb over the "i" in Chima. "And I need to color in my name too." He added in his little touches as I marveled at how rapidly he's growing up.

Crocodile

"What should we do today?"

"I don't know," he said without giving it any thought.

"What do you want?" I pressed him.

He hesitated and then he exclaimed, "Alligator!"

"Alligator or crocodile?" I asked, not even sure myself of the difference.

"Crocodile!" he shouted right away, although I doubt he remembers the difference either.

I ran a search and he found one he liked immediately. "The face looks like a dragon," he remarked.

I became impatient today and rushed through the details, especially the scales. Once I had finished, I realized that I didn't like the look of the crocodile simply floating on it's own on the sack. I decided to add just a touch of scenery to place him somewhere, something I rarely do.

"Ooo, I like it! It looks furious!" he said excitedly.

Action Scene: T-Rex vs. Croc

Action Scene: T-Rex vs. Croc

He asked for another dinosaur this morning, but he returned the book to his school library yesterday. I did a search and handed him my iPhone. I asked him to pick a dinosaur we hadn't already done.

I was pushing for Stegosaurus but he didn't want that. He picked this scene instead. Had it just been the T-Rex I would have refused to do yet another T-Rex, but with the croc there too, this was something new. Action. Motion. Conflict. Maybe this is a new avenue of drawings to try...action scenes!