Coloring

Coloring Time with Emily: Tools of the Trade

So cute

The aftermath

On Sunday, I was having a great morning, sitting on my porch drinking a cup of coffee and reading Rayuela. I had just come back from church and I had no plans to do much of anything for the rest of the day. Like clockwork, my 5 year old neighbor wandered over. "Emily, can we color today?" I told him to come back later in the afternoon, but he got into the house and ran into my room. It was a mess, and I was trying to keep him from touching everything.

 We looked at some maps and National Geographics that I had lying around and it was awesome to see his reaction to the pictures. Since he's the kind of kid who loves to touch everything, I decided that it would be easier to keep him occupied with coloring supplies. He also got into my glue and scissors and recycling collection. His sister found out he was coloring with me and came over too. They stayed for over 2 hours, cutting and drawing and writing. It was a super tiring hanging out with them, but it was admittedly kind of fun. Especially because I got to return them to the parents later on.  

Today, when I arrived home from school, my neighbor was on the porch, watching my host-brother play a game. He lept up: "Emily!!!!!!!!!" Then he grabbed my water cooler and my heavy bag of school supplies and tried to carry them to my room even though they were bigger than he was. And then he made a beeline for the coloring supplies.