Anthony sometimes really surprises us in the morning with what he's done before we awake.
Sometimes it involves something bad, like pee-pee on the floor or poop under a table or the entire contents of a tissue box spread out over the floor.
But more often, it's with something that amazes us because it represents a huge leap in his creativity or in some skill, such as when he built a most excellent street sweeper almost completely from his imagination, or a new level of artwork.
Today was one of those “huge leap” days. The level of what he drew is well behind some of his peers, but it's really advanced compared to what he'd been drawing (which itself was a big step over where he was just a few months ago).
The picture below sort of matches one that he and I did together the other day, with a curving road bordered with grass, a dotted line down the middle (except on the curve, where it's a no-passing solid line), and arrows showing the direction of travel. It even includes one oddly-shaped arrow that mimics the “curve ahead” ones on the road here, that look odd from above but look like a natural curving arrow when viewed at a low angle.
It's wonderful enough that he could even reproduce that much so well, but then he added a fairly accurate version of the parking lot by the preschool, including the tiny door in the back wall that leads through a fairly dense garden to the sprawling two-section house of the lot owner (the first section having a very high step up from garden level to porch level), complete with smoke from the chimneys.
I should point out that Anthony had been behind the little door only once, for a short time, three months ago. I have no idea how he can remember the details as he does.
In the parking lot is our yellow Toyota Sienta (which is the subject of my first blog post), as well as a track showing the path that Mommy took when they drove, with crosses and triangles marking the places that Anthony was fussy.
The street has one traffic light, on which he added a component of his own design: the blue light goes on when the road is restricted to emergency vehicles. (Frankly, that would make a lot of sense in this earthquake-prone country!)
The one thing that's a bit of a mystery are the fruit stickers in the outside lane. The best description I could get is that they “show where to drive.”
Obviously kids must have a pretty good memory.
We had the same experience a few months ago with Carina as you had it recently with Anthony (he remembered fairly well what is behind the little door). During our trip to Seoul in October last year we passed by an icecream shop only once, without stepping in. 3 weeks later we had to take the same way and Carina insisted to show us the way to the icecream shop. Of course we have been very surprised since we had no idea what she is talking about (we forgot already completely). We asked her to show us the direction. For her it seems to be a matter of trust and honor. She started to run (like launching a rocket) and stopping every 25m to tell us again that she knows the way very well to the icecream shop. We arrived quick (!!) and well and are still wondering how well she remembered.
I really enjoy the Anthony art with those cute explanations. I find all your work to point out the details extraordinary. At least I’ve never met anybody before who did the same. Bravo!