The Agony and the Ecstasy

Rhiannon is now drawing. Not scribbling. Not blotting. Drawing. She started drawing human figures consistently this week, and the results are, well, horrifyingly cute. I guess normal kids would draw mommy, daddy, kitty, the standard "who do I see everyday" fare for kids to draw what they know. Well, there's someone else Rhiannon sees every day: the Boogeyman.

Apparently, the drawing at the top is the Boogeyman (note mustaccio, beard, and top-knot), and the figure below is "the Boogeyman's sister". The Boogeyman is actually, in our household, the head-and-shoulders rendering of "The Man in the Golden Helmet" as painted by Rembrandt. We have a color facsimile, framed in the upstairs stairwell, a figure who traumatized Jayni when she was small. Like mother, like daughter. According to Rhiannon, the Boogeyman gets you if he catches you picking your nose. He actually steps out of the frame to come get you. Rhiannon said he almost got me earlier today, so I count myself lucky in being able to write this.

So Rhiannon's first figured drawing features a figure of childhood terror. I guess it figures. Let's build on that imagination.

Andrew (Papa)