A Special Card for Ella

On Saturday morning, Katie Anne and I were getting ready for Ella Jolly's second birthday party.  (Poor Daddy had to work.)  Katie Anne picked out Ella's card, and she said that she wanted to write her own name on it and draw Ella a "special picture".  She wanted to use her markers.  We haven't done a lot of free drawing with markers recently - the last time I remember us just drawing on blank paper was when we were waiting for our flight back from Arizona.  So, I wasn't expecting too much of the artwork and didn't see the need to grab the camera.

Well, first Katie Anne said she wanted to write Ella's name on front of the envelope.  I told her that was fine, and I opened her purple marker for her to use.  She said, "What's Ella start wif?"  I told her "E" ... and she wrote a little backwards e!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  Then, she said, "What's next?"  I said "L" ... and she wrote an l!  She asked again what came next, and I told her another L, and she wrote another l on the paper.  Finally, I told her an A, and she said, "That looks like a little circle."  And she drew a lowercase a!

At this point, I should've ran for the camera, but I think I was in total shock that Katie Anne just wrote something that looked recognizably like "ella" all by herself.  So, I just sat there stunned as she proceeded to open Ella's card and draw a really good rendition of a face.  Purple circle for the head, two blue dots for the eyes (she asked me what color Ella's eyes were), a red "smile" (actually looks more like a frown, but the artist is two, people), and a swipe of blonde hair across the forehead! 

At this point, I knew two things.  One- this was by far the most sophisticated artwork Katie Anne had produced yet by far.  Two- no one would ever believe that she did this.  People would think I'd draw these things with my left hand and tried to say Katie Anne had done it.  That was when I jumped up and ran for the camera.  Here we go, folks ... documentation of artistic genius - and handwriting prowess - in the making!

Katie Anne chooses her next color ... see Ella's face in the background?

 Tongue out in concentration, she gives Ella a green dress.

 

Now, for Ella's arms and legs.

Next, she drew Erin.  Here she adds eyes to Erin's (slightly too big) purple face.

After giving Erin a red dress and smile, she added arms and legs to her body.

She was very disappointed that she did not have room to draw Jason.  She thought about trying to draw him really skinny on the side of the page, but then she decided to leave it "just girls" and add a sunshine.  Here, she draws a circle for the center of the sun.

Then, she adds "sparkles" -as she called them- coming out of the sun.

Here's the finished art piece!  This is her first drawing that really looks like people!

Of course, the artist is self-critical.  Her comments were, "I made Ella's dress too big" and "Erin's dress looks like a swing."  I still thought they were awesome!

Then, she said she wanted to write her name at the bottom of the card.  Mommy, ever the doubter, again had an Okay, sure moment.  We have never worked on writing letters.  However, she told me that she had been working on it at school.  I'm not sure if she has ... I've never seen any work come home where it looks like she's written her name, but who am I to question her?  Obviously, based on the following example, I do not know what I'm talking about. 

Again, she wanted the purple marker, and I gave it to her.  She proceeded to write - without me telling her anything - her own version of a K and a lowercase A. 

 

Then, she said, "What comes next?"  I told her a T.  I still could not believe that she could do this.  She said, "Can you show me how to make that?"  So, I grabbed an old envelope and wrote a lowercase t on the back.  She then imitated me on the card, repeating this process for each letter in her name!

Here's my envelope work ... I only did one N, but I told her there were two in her name, so she wrote two.

Working hard on writing her name.

So proud to show off the finished product!

I thought she couldn't do it, but I stand corrected!

She added a final touch to the front of the card ... a yellow birthday cake with two burning purple candles.

And then she pronounced her artwork complete!

I desperately wanted to keep the card, but she insisted on giving it to Ella.  So, I thought the pictures would be evidence enough of her work.  I can't wait to let her draw our family portrait so I can frame it!