Friday, January 07, 2011

Coloring Page

Earlier today Smiley expressed interest in a coloring page for the first time.

What happened?  It all starts with how, for various reasons, we made many short trips to CostCo this week.  Smiley really likes climbing on one of their display bunk beds, but not every trip had time for this.  On one trip, because he was being so well behaved while handling his disappointment, I splurged and bought him a singing Thomas book for few dollars.

He loves that book.  We often sit beside each other and sing the songs.  He has such a cute voice, I could listen to him sing for hours.

Anyway, the inside of the cover has a few corporate logos, including a black-and-white drawing of Thomas.  Smiley asked why Thomas was white.  This is understandably confusing, since in his mind the various storybook engines are primarily differentiated by their colors.
Smiley: Why is that Thomas white?

Me: The people that made the book did not color that picture of him.

Smiley: What does Thomas say when he is white?

Me: I don't know.  Maybe he says, "I wish someone would get a crayon and color me."

Smiley: I'll get a crayon.

Me: But we don't color in books.  We only color in paper.

Smiley: Except for coloring books.

Me: Yes.  But this is not a coloring book.  Do you want me to make a color page with Thomas?

Smiley: Yes!
(Smiley knew about coloring books because the waiting room at our old mechanic had some.  My wife purchased a Curious George coloring book once because it was on sale and almost free, but Smiley has never wanted to use it.)

Google promptly provided this website, from which I printed two copies of a coloring page.  Smiley took them to the art table in his playroom, and colored on both of them very excitedly.

1 comment:

Heather said...

Those black and white pictures in books always drove me nuts. I desperately wanted to color them and of course you "don't color in books" but NEVER wanted to color in coloring books because the lines were never where I wanted them to be. Of course back then there weren't print your own-- I am sure I would have loved a coloring page that was just a print out of an image from my favorite books.