Madeleine's Beautiful Box

Madeleine has been working VERY hard (as in hours spent silently concentrating on her coloring) on decorating a box. We parents all know how valuable a good, empty cardboard box can be to a kid.  Not only can it be used in pretend play, but it offers multiple sides of blank canvas on which to color. 

Here is what Madeleine has done so far. 

Box top:

This is Harry Potter (left) and Ginny (center right.)  According to Madeleine, "Mommy?  So.  Ginny has such big hair because she has BANGS.  So, I think this picture is when she's a little OLDER, because I think when Ginny gets older, she grows BANGS."


The inside of the box is decorated all over, as well.  Here's the inside lid:

This is a plate.  As Madeleine told me, "Yeah, and it's DARK because there's DOG CAT FOOD on it!"


The lower inside of the box is thoroughly colored as well:

ME: Madeleine, what did you color here?
MADELEINE: Oh.  Just some decorations!


And the bottom of the box is adorned as well:

Aside from Madeleine and Julia each writing their name, Madeleine also drew a few little things.  Like the orange blob: "A butterfly."  And the black squares.  "Oh, those are little DOORS."  (ME: What do the doors lead to?  MADELEINE: Oh.  Nowhere.)


Madeleine is currently hard at work coloring the outer sides of the box.  She had the radical new idea of inviting text onto her box (beyond just the names on the bottom.) 

MADELEINE: Mommy, Mommy, I made some LINES so that you can write some QUESTIONS!  Come and see, come and see!

And sure enough, along the side of the box, she had extended horizontal lines, one on top of another.

MADELEINE:  Okay, Mommy, so you can write down your QUESTION!  And

Mommy.  You can be my SECOND special sistant.  Because...Julia is my FIRST special sistant, so you can be my SECOND sistant.


So, I took my job of second sistant very seriously, and therefore wrote down my question and read it to Madeleine.


ME: Okay, here's my question:  "What is this box for?"
MADELEINE: (breezily) I use it for magical MIRACLES.

A moment later, Madeleine urged me to write another question, because, "This box is for all girls to write TWO questions.  So, when Julia gets home, she will write TWO questions.  And Mom.  You need to write TWO questions."

So I wrote a second question down and read it to Madeleine.

ME: I wrote: "How long did it take you to decorate this box?"
MADELEINE: (with a very serious face) Um, a little bit long.

Now that's a precise calculation of time if I ever heard one.

At any rate, it's a good thing I took pictures of the box when I did, because Madeleine's next step was to announce that it got really dark in Harry Potter and Ginny's world, and next thing I knew, she had colored the entire top of the box with a dark marker, covering up all of her drawings (with the exception of Ginny's big flop of red hair.)

Glad to know that even as Madeleine's artistic ability increases, she still holds on tight to her love of completely covering her existing designs with a layer of all-black.  Gothic artists rejoice!: you have a budding new talent in the making!