The artist and his tongue

Oliver loves to color. On most days, multiple times a day, you can find him up in the chair at the kitchen table surrounded by paper and crayons just coloring away. We actually have the supplies in an area where he can easily get them because otherwise all we would hear throughout the day is "I want to color. Please can I color. Get me crayons! I want to color."

He doesn't care what he is coloring on - paper, coloring books, important papers, books... no preference (fortunately he typically does not color on non paper items). He just loves to color. He would love to use markers and paints too, however Collin sneaks them off the table then colors the walls, furniture, doors, clothes, etc. with those items so we restrict it to crayons... washable crayons. He also tends to color two ways, either filling the entire page with scribbles of different sorts or in a coloring book where he will attempt to color in the lines (he's far from it, but he is talking about it so I know he is trying). He will color for anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes at a time. Steve calls him a "coloring fiend."

Our little artist at work:

He was also observed and complimented on having a "beautiful tripod hold" on the crayon, which I am told is good for a child his age.

He tends to have his tongue sticking out when he is really concentrating on his coloring.

As I sit here typing a few blog posts, with my tongue out, I see how it does give you a creative edge. I wonder if it would help me to stick my tongue out while concentrating on some of my projects at work...