Miles had a much better day today, which was great because he was shaking his cold before his impending birthday. In fact, everyone was in a better mood tonight through dinnertime, after which Miles walked over to the coffee table and said, “OH! Hey, look at this!” There was a real playfulness in his voice, and he was clearly riding high from all the positive energy. I enthusiastically walked over to see what he was pointing at. Anyway, it was this:
As far as I can recall, this was the first time Miles had taken a crayon to anything other than a sheet of paper or his drawing table, and not only were we unprepared for what we found on the coffee table, Miles was unprepared for our reaction. I honestly think he expected us to say something like, “Oh, wow, Miles! What a great drawing!” You can probably imagine how our actual response…differed slightly.
There were a lot of tears, but after it all died down I think Miles got the message — don’t color on anything. And with a little soapy water and a lot of elbow grease, I was able to get it clean (well, close enough anyway).
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 