Oh, and here's another story about Isaac I really like:
Every week my wife takes him to a nearby nature center where he learns about all sorts of things, including rocks, bugs, birds, and - on one occasion - the phases of the moon. At the end of this class, the teacher handed out a black-and-white line drawing of the moon and asked the kids color it.
Walking around the classroom, the teacher was pleased to see so many kids using their yellow crayons to color the drawing. When she reached Isaac's desk, though, she stopped and looked concerned. You see, rather than carefully coloring the moon, Isaac had grabbed a handful of crayons and attacked the drawing with random slashes of brown, green, gray and purple. The puzzled teacher asked him what he was doing, and Isaac - clearly happy with his creation - replied that he was drawing the inside of the moon.
I'm happy to report, too, that my three-year-old daughter, Hannah, likewise shows plenty of signs of thinking for herself. Not too long ago she was gleefully drawing a picture which looked sort of - but not entirely - like someone's foot. I sat down next to her and asked what she was drawing, and she grinned and replied, "an evil toe!" then started laughing maniacally.
Okay, so maybe that's more cause for alarm than hope, but I'm still proud of her.
Great stories Nick :) Stories like these make me not want to wait any longer for kids... I am sure there are bad ones too, but leave em for later, I am getting married this Saturday :)
Posted by: Josh Dura | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 09:50 AM
hahaha... that's great stuff! it's great to hear parents 'enjoying' their children.
Posted by: daniel bishop | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 10:05 AM
Hey, congrats on your upcoming marriage, Josh!
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 10:33 AM
Evil toe? That is definately a free thinker you have there.. any show of love for the PC??
Posted by: Brent | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 10:36 AM
I can see you are really going to enjoy parenthood, at any age... ;-)
(as do I. it's great!!!)
nice to see others who enjoy the odd stories rather than worrying that their kids aren't conforming... I've always told my wife that I never aspired to be 'normal' and that it just meant boring or uncreative to me.
Posted by: Jeff Wilkinson | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 11:48 AM
Ha ha! I have a son turning one this month, and I love the "evil toe" story!
Posted by: Lance England | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 12:45 PM
Love for the PC? Evil Toe? I bet she'll be a Mac user!
Posted by: Philip | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 02:33 PM
It's great that your kids resist fitting the mold. I don't have any kids at the moment, but my fiance (can't get used to that - it's only been a few days officially) and I have been seriously talking about it.
Granted, at my age, they'll probably have to be adopted, but you never know.
Posted by: Yvonne Adams | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 03:19 PM
Congratulations, Yvonne :)
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 05:50 PM
Brent, both of my kids starting using a PC before age two.
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Wednesday, July 07, 2004 at 05:52 PM
Those are both marvelous stories. I particularly liked the concept of coloring inside the moon. Thats really great.
Posted by: bill reith | Thursday, July 08, 2004 at 01:25 PM
Wow before age 2? I have a 7month old that has thrown a mouse at his sister.. But I don't think that counts. The other two are into it okay, but they are 8,6.
Posted by: Brent | Thursday, July 08, 2004 at 01:50 PM
Brent, once your 7mo old stops tossing the mouse, let him try BabyType (http://www.raize.com/CProducts/BabyType/ ) - it's what I got both of my kids started on.
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Thursday, July 08, 2004 at 01:57 PM