Crayons and rainbows

Do you remember when the greatest joys in life were the really little things?

Like getting a big new 64-count box of crayons.















I remember getting a new box at the start of each school year, and I remember how much I relished the new, sharp tips on all the crayons. None of them were worn down by heavy coloring. No labels were torn. The cardboard box was still sharp-cornered and crisp.

Actually, a brand new box of crayons is still one of life's little delights for me. I still love new markers and crayons and colored pencils and notepads and notebooks---any art or school supplies. When I started freelancing regularly again, I took myself over to Staples and happily filled a small cart with "necessary" organizational supplies. (Like new highlighters and multi-colored paperclips, eeee!) But anyway, despite my age and my (ahem) maturity, I still have a hard time resisting crayons. Tonight, I convinced David to let me put this big 64-count box in our Target cart so William could have some nice new crayons, and David rolled his eyes and said he knew exactly who those crayons were for.

They still smell the same. And except for some new color names, they still look the same, too. Maybe there's no more Prussian Blue or Flesh, but I think Macaroni and Cheese and Purple Mountain Majesty are at least as good. Maybe better.

William just enjoyed taking every.single.crayon. out of the box, one at a time.
















But hey, if that's how he enjoys his crayons, who am I to judge?

And he did color with them after he'd checked them all out individually. He's really into drawing what he calls rainbows right now. We always sing this song about rainbows at storytime at the downtown library, and one of the children's librarians always draws a big picture of a rainbow with crayons during the song. He encourages the children to raise their hands and tell him their favorite colors so he can add them to the rainbow.

The lyrics go like this: "Let's make a rainbow, a rainbow, a rainbow. A beautiful rainbow, so high in the sky. Everyone, let's make a beautiful rainbow. With favorite colors, come on, let's try." And then you add in the colors so it starts, "Red/blue/green/whatever is a color that's found in a rainbow. A beautiful rainbow so high in the sky..." Ad nauseam.

William knows the whole song. There's nothing sweeter and more hilarious than hearing his little voice warble out "ess make rainbow, rainbow, a rainbow, booofull rainbow, high in da sky. evrone ess make booful rainbow, favorite colors, come on ess try!" This is particularly true when he just bursts out in song with no warning, like when I'm driving and he's riding in the back seat.

After he cheerfully warbles his way through the main chorus a couple of times, then he furrows his brow and says, "Daddy, favrit color? Ummmm, oyange? Oyange is color found in rainbow! Booful rainbow so high in da sky..." And then he'll stop and quiz me for my favorite color. However, he always answers the question himself. And the answer is always orange. Every once in awhile, the answer is yellow. But if you try to say yellow, you are wrong. Because clearly the answer is orange. Got it? Orange is a color that's found in a rainbow, a beautiful rainbow so high in the sky...

So he drew rainbows with his new crayons. Doesn't that make you want to dig out your own Crayolas right now?