Moses Draws Insects

Moses brought home with him the book Draw 50 Creepy Crawlers by Lee J. Ames with Ray Burns.
Here is his Gypsy Moth Larva. (June 2012)
You can also see the mosquito, drawn with the book's help.

In the bottom picture, one can see why the flower to the left is frowning--the roots are under attack.












Here is a group of insects under an insectoid sun-- note the compound eyes and mandibles.  A flea and a beetle are in the air, while a rhinoceros beetle noses along behind a flying insect of indeterminate species.

Moses & Mommy Play Mutant Pumpkin w Spider Spider

Moses loves the movie Monsters vs. Aliens and the spin-off Halloween television special, Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space.  

Here he pretends to be Galaxhar and a Mutant Pumpkin, while I give voice to Spider Spider and myself.  The picture is too dark, but the pretending is very high-quality and completely improvised.  Someone should have reminded Spider Spider that in this case the cliche holds true, a cactus gives a prickly hug... and to use this old adage as a springboard to a new saying:
A Mutant Pumpkin always mistakes sweetness for candy.

August 2010 Rory & Mommy at Table

Rory and I had a snack while we waited for Moses to wake up from his nap.

Moses continues to work through his ideas about trees and emotions.

Here is the pen drawing,

 A Friendly Tree.

The tree's expression is unmistakably friendly, branch arms outstretched and ready to hug.  Moses uses a new trunk-body figure, clearly rectangular and mobilized by the two feet.  A puffy cloud of leaves crowns this engaging arboreal representation.  The three-fingered hand that Moses favors works quite well in this context.  The circular track in the middle of the trunk may be small creatures or may be holes in the trunk.

Another ink and college rule paper:

Tree Struck by Lightning and Saying, "Ouch!"

Several aspects of this drawing grab my attention.  The tree wears an expression of intense pain.  The multiple lightning strikes hurled at the poor tree seem to have lifted the tree's crown completely off its trunk.  But, what is most interesting to me is the way that Moses has made it seem that the tree has been knocked back on its feet.  He is attempting to add dimension, I think, by creating a circle at the bottom of the trunk.  We can see the bottom of the trunk as the tree falls back and to the side.

Finally, 

Ghost Eye Tree with Bone Spider and Owl

Note the heavily darkened eyes and O-shaped mouth which is clearly emitting spooky sounds.  The arms on the Ghost Eye Tree differ from the regular trees depicted above.  The are wavy, wriggling as they reach for us.  The bone spider has spinnerets and a line of silk coming out of the lower part, seven legs, and a clear pair of fangs.  His eyes are overlapping circles.  The intense figure at the top of the picture is an owl, his head, body, and wings identifiable.  The creature at the Ghost Eye Tree's feet was not mentioned by the artist.

Thinking about The Ghost Eye Tree

My three-year-old Moses asked me about the Ghost Eye Tree,
a spooky tree from one of his favorite books.
"Mom, why doesn't the Ghost Eye Tree have any leaves?" Moses asked.

We walk around the neighborhood almost every day, and we talk about different trees.
Because they are spooky and remind him of the Ghost Eye Tree,
Moses is particularly interested in trees with no leaves.
He knows that some trees lose their leaves because of a fungus,
or maybe an insect invasion, or maybe because the tree was hatracked,
meaning improperly pruned by cutting straight across the top of the truck.

So, when he asked me why the Ghost Eye Tree had no leaves,
I knew that he was looking for a very specific answer:
"First of all, when a tree loses its leaves, and it's cold out and windy,
people think that a tree looks very spooky.
So, spooky stories usually take place in the Fall.
The Ghost Eye Tree has no leaves because the story takes place in the Fall.
You see, Fall is really called Autumn,
but most people call it Fall because that's when the leaves fall off the trees."

And Moses replied, with his hands growing up out of his body for emphasis:
"Yeah, and that's when the tree grows yellow eyes."

I like the way he thinks!

Lunch with Moses, Two Years Old

I had lunch with my two-year-old son, Moses,

a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat,

and this is what he thought about and talked about while we ate.

Moses: I never saw a peanut butter waterfall before.

Mom: I never did either. I bet it would be slow and sticky.

Moses: 'ticky.

Mom: Yes. Very.

Moses: I would put my finger in it.

Mom: You would stick to it.

Moses: I would be 'tuck.