Drawing

Today winter has arrived. Snow fills the backyard of Henry's house, and Eli and I are sitting here after breakfast. Henry is rustling up breakfast before a busy day teaching at SU. It's very bright outside, cold, and Eli is drawing faces and faces and faces from a sketchbook by Ed Emberley. Eli says "He is my favorite writer of all the drawing books." His favority author is Mary Pope Osborne. Eli was concerned that I might misspell her name, so he came over here and helped me re-type her name. His sweatshirt smells clean and good and his bulky, muscular body wiggles as he searches patiently for the letters "r" and "n" and "e." Eli draws for hours, literally, drawing in a slow straight sequence, face by face, all through the book.

I helped out in Eli's class the other day, helping the kids ...

These are some of the things we talk about when we're together:

I caught a butterfly right here, Eli says, when we walk past a certain spot on the sidewalk..
Fairly Odd Parents [a TV show] and what the kid said...
If there were only 2 months per season, then it wouldn't add up to twelve
Oz and lb: I used to think that these were pronounced "OZ" and "LB", but now I know they are short for "ounce" and "pound."
Blackberries in their garden are really good.
Eli got English Ivy; his is growing but most kids' died; his is in the bathroom, which is maybe why it survived.
How do you spell Halloween?
Ask Henry about getting a cat--go on, ask him. Ask him!