We love Marc

There is a precious rope that you walk on when it comes to children's art work.  You don't want to say "Oh look!  I love the cute puppy that you drew!" only to be looked at with big puppy dog eyes and the response "But Mom.  It's a scary bear eating a wolf!  I can't believe you thought it was a puppy!"  (This exact story happened once to one of my families back at the Downtown School!)  So when Harrison brought this wonderful drawing home from Sunday School a couple of weeks ago, I said "Oh look!  You drew our family!" and then while speaking I did the math and realized I needed Harrison to tell me about the picture instead of me telling him about the picture.

I mean look!  Isn't it wonderful?  I was so proud.  Harrison is usually a scribbler and not very interested in drawing actual things.  And here he has drawn PEOPLE!  After my initial enthusiasm and joy, I tried to maintain excitement for his drawing and calmly asked him to tell me about it.  He said:

"This is me.  This is Daddy.  This is you.  This is Marc.  And this is Bennett.  Isn't it great?!?!"

So it was his family plus an extended family member.  It was great, but Marc?  I was pretty sure we only knew one Marc, but I had to tread lightly.  I didn't want to offend him by asking the wrong question and he can be very sensitive about things like this.  I asked what they learned in Sunday School today and sure enough he learned about families.  I said "Cool.  So you decided to draw a picture of your family?"  And then Chris asked the question I was dying to ask, but didn't want to: "Why did you draw Marc?"  At this point, as hard as I was trying for this not to happen, Harrison began to think that he had done something wrong.  He got a quizzical look on his face and looked at me like I should say something.  I didn't know what to say!  He was second guessing himself.  He finally said "Is Marc part of our family?"  I said "Of course he is, honey.  Isn't that why you drew him in your picture?"  This seemed to pacify Harrison and we proudly displayed his picture on the refrigerator.  

Anyway, we never really got an answer as to why Harrison decided to draw Marc in the picture.  I mean, he is family, but as family goes, we haven't seen Marc in a couple of months so I don't know what brought him to the fore-front of Harrison's mind.  Chris and I got a big kick out of it and I called Marc to fill him in and he also got a big kick out of being included.  The drawing and Chris' question about Marc have led to many other questions about family; what are cousins, uncles, aunts and other family members?  How are we related?  Why are Caden and I not releated?  Etc.  It has actually been a fun learning experience.

Harrison now wants to have a family picture taken.  And when I say family, I mean any one with DNA even closely resembling Harrison.  So beware family everywhere, Harrison is going to be calling.  No matter how distant the relation!