Colouring In

Day 245

22 January 2010

We have lots of Colouring In items. Paints, chalks, crayons, pencils, felt-tips, watercolour pens, luminous pens, facepaints...we are never short of a pen or two.

So today, when I arrived home with some brand new, thick, chubby crayons for my son to learn to use, my daughter was suddenly desperate to use them. Even though there were enough of her own to colour in a whole house, she still wanted to be the first one to use every single colour crayon.

I decided that her brother should have the first turn, and that she had an opportunity to learn to wait for something, but she was not happy. There was much negotiation, foot-stamping, arm-folding and scowling, whilst her brother tried to reach up to the crayons himself. Finally, she relented, and allowed him the pleasure of being the first one to use the crayon.

He put it into his hand, the purple one, the one that was highly prized by his older sibling; looked at it, smiled, and then put it into his mouth and chewed the end off.

There was much consoling to be done, a cuddle here, a wipe of purple crayon there...