My son, the ar-teest

For the past several months, Aidan has found joy in sitting at his table for upwards of an hour (amazing for Mr. Short Attention span) coloring with crayons and markers. My sister pounced on this and bought the boys all kinds of art supplies for their birthday. A whole Rubbermaid tub full in fact. She herself is an artist and so I think she is trying to foster their creativity in a way our mom never fostered hers. Nothing against my mom, of course, but she had her own issues with self-esteem which she passed on to pretty much all of her 4 kids. Even if we were really good at something (like my sister and her art) she never really encourtaged it. But, I digress...

So, in this box was stickers, pom-poms, finger paint, crayons, markers, glue sticks, and paper. Oh, the paper. She bought them "real" artist sketch pads in a few different sizes. When I protested that those were too nice for them to just scribble in and fill up in a day or two, my sister shushed me and said she got them at a discount art supply store. Well, ok then. But now, those are the only things that Aidan wants to color in. He even uses the term sketch pad. "Mummy, where is my sketch pad?" I have tried substituting some little pads of paper I have found here and there but, no. He must have a sketch pad. So now almost every week we make a trip to Michael's to buy him and his brother (who really doesn't care what kind of paper he draws on but must have exactly what his brother has) the smallest sketch pads they make because those are the size Aidan prefers. And they must be the exact ones that Auntie got him. I am now coveting those 40% coupons you get in the mail every week for Michael's and I have my parents and in-laws on the look out for theirs.

Got any to spare? lol