Hi everyone!  Justin has started something new these past couple of weeks.  See, the kid likes chalk (or really anything that makes a visible mark).  He writes on EVERYTHING with chalk.  Until this past year, he had NO interest in actually making marks of any kind.   Now we see numbers from time to time, and just earlier this week were treated to hundreds of chalk balloons on the walls of our apartment (first representational-though-entirely-copied art!!)

Justin uses us as his “stims”.  Yes, he flaps his hands when he’s excited and jumps up and down and shrieks – but more important to him is being the task-master watching us draw whatever he demands.  Sometimes we write numbers from 1 to about 356 (at which point he’s decided that he’s had his fill – we’re typically done by oh, 4).  Other times, we draw letters or household objects or other objects in his environment – yes, we’ve drawn hundreds of bottles and Target stores.  We also draw logos from favorite places: Target, UZoo (a favorite series of YouTube videos), etc.  Most importantly, we draw our rushed versions of his favorite cartoon characters: He-Man (and associated characters), Cookie Monster, and Strong Bad as he watches our every stroke.  

 

Chalk Mural: 8/11/11 by Justin Owen, Age 3Awesome, right?! Take a closer look at that left side there. It's okay, I didn't get it at first either. Well, Justin was so proud of his "art", he patted this part of the wall and said, "STRONG BAD!" after I left for work today. Now look at StrongBad:StrongBad = Snarky cartoon dude in a Mexican wrestler mask.

 
 
And this is how Justin sees them:
 
 
From the top (as Justin points them out):
“It’s gots [a] head.”
“It’s gots eyes.”
“It’s gots teeth.” (*my personal favorite)
“It’s gots shirt.”
“It’s gots legs.”
 
 
LOVE IT!! 
 
For you more “sensible” people out there, a quick statement about writing on my walls:
 
I know we’ll be painting our own walls before moving out of this apartment (you can only wash chalk off the same walls so many times before their cheap-o paint gives way to drywall), but there are greater tragedies.  We fought for so long to get him to make any marks, and from our past experience with Justin we know that he will only “need” to do this for a little while longer before he moves on to the next thing.  We don’t encourage him on the wall and we give him other options – but his interest in something that will grow his mental and manual development so much makes this a battle not worth fighting.   The benefits outweigh the risks by a long shot. 
 
In the meantime, we’re celebrating our little boy finding new ways to tell us about his world.  And that, friends, is worth celebrating!