Coloring, lolly pops and more regulation

Who drives through a snow storm at 30 mph to go to Dollarama to buy crayons and markers? We do. We never stop (although sometimes we get sick, bored, tired and so on). We are desperate and when we see something work, we cling to it with our nails screeching and bloody fingers.

The average colouring book has crowded, busy drawings. I downloaded some simple pictures of familiar characters from google images and coloured them in with a single color to show K. Then I asked him to do it. He did a pretty good job. You can see the concentration of scribbles is higher on the drawing than outside it.





I also realised that most of our markers were drying out and we had thrown (lost or given?) away all the crayons because until recently he would bite and chew them. He would also only make random scribbles. At one point he memorized how to make a face, but is no longer interested.

But coloring? This was major. We were going out there, in rush hour, in the snow storm, risking life and limb to get some new colors. That was Friday.

Today's weather was gorgeous. After a morning of groceries, tobogganing, rolling down hills and making snow women, K (and his dad) are down for a nap and I am printing out more pictures.

As with the face drawing (which we assumed would lead to more drawings but it did not), you never know where this coloring thing will (or won't) lead. Like I said, you gotta cling to whatever is working at the time. Not having too many expectations and just getting on with the job is what keeps us sane (most of the time).

Watching K coloring was a learning experience in itself. It takes a lot for him to be regulated enough to put pen to paper and then focus on task. He has to take the cap on and off a few times, twiddle the marker in his hand and I could see the effort in trying to keep the scribbles on the drawing. He was particularly mad with himself for losing his control on Kai Lan's purple hair clips. (I told him which color to choose for which item because I just wanted to know if he could actually color). I suppose next time I will try and focus more on his ability to regulate and control his hand movements.