Ruby Tuesday: My Mom is a Robot

Ruby Tuesday: A Story

Once there was a girl who had a tree.


She really loved the tree.


One day a man with a saw came by and tried to cut down the tree.


The girl got a stop sign and said "STOP!"


The girl went back to loving the tree and the man with the saw was taken to prison. The end.

Given

One of the best gifts that I had the pleasure of wrapping this year was a trio of art pieces that Ruby created to give to her two grandmothers and her Aunties. We borrowed this idea for single colour collages from a project that Ruby's kindergarten class did at the beginning of the year. Each child was assigned a single color and had to collect objects from home to use in their collage. Then they painted a canvas a solid colour and Mod Podged their objects down in whatever manner they chose. The pieces are displayed in the foyer of the school and they're amazing. Ruby was assigned black, which is kind of a boring color to do, so we decided to give it another crack with some brighter colors at home.

Having a well stocked craft room makes this project a lot easier, since we could grab scraps of yarn and ribbon and cut off pieces of yarn to our hearts content. Ruby chose the colours she used, taking the recipients' tastes into account. It took us the course of an afternoon to glue everything down and we had a lot of fun doing it.


I really love the finished look of these guys. It thrills me to no end when a five year old can so easily make something that looks like real life ART. Everyone who received a picture was beyond thrilled and my little gal has never been more proud. Neither has her mother.

Ruby Tuesday

It is so like my girl to come home from school with puppets like these. Three separate ladies on three separate days to put on plays at home. The bejeweled one is obviously the favourite.

p.s. In other news, I just finished reading the late Rue McLanahan's memoir and it really is a fun read. Now I've moved onto John Waters' Role Models, which is so far, charming, funny, and sweet. Reading is fun.

In Production

And motivation begins to creep in. Yes, that's a stack of cut fabric. Shockingly, most of it has now been sewn together. I'm feeling good, people. Feeling good.


In other news, Ruby is taking piano lessons with an awesome musician that we know. She sent home a little keyboard picture for Ruby to colour and Ruby took it upon herself to write "I colour me and you!" This cracks me up like crazy.

Art Star

I've had one of those weeks where I was extra extra extra proud of my kiddos. Ruby participated in a summer art program last July and they held back a piece by each of the kids. They went through all the pieces, chose about 50 and curated an art show at a little gallery downtown. We went to the opening last week and Ruby decked herself out in a pretty dress and a tiara and was just so lovely and pleased with herself. The organizers asked if she'd come back this week to be interviewed by a local TV channel about her piece. Ruby is a very animated girl but clams up around strangers, so I was reluctant, but she wanted to do it and she did a great job. Proud, I tell ya.

So, here is the painting. It's a cowgirl. I'd forgotten that she'd signed her name backwards -- it was something she did for about three weeks last year and could never explain why she did it. Her drawing has changed so much in the last year and it was amazing to see this little nugget captured from when she was a mere four and a half.

Ruby Tuesday: Back to School Edition

Today was Ruby's first full morning back to school (on Monday they split the class into hour-long shifts) and it was the first time that she'd seen her best school chum, Julia, since summer began. The girls were a little shy with each other at first, but before long they were chasing each other around the school yard. Parents will always tell you that there's nothing more amazing than watching their children make real friends, and I'm telling you it's true. Seeing Ruby form relationships with other little people really warms my heart.

For their art project today, the teacher asked the kids to draw a picture of their favourite thing about school. Ruby drew a picture of herself and Julia, together, arm in arm. This is her favourite thing about school -- better than the toys or the snacks or even the water table. I hope that Julia knows she's a pretty lucky little girl.

May The Force Be With Her

The other day Leena, Aaron's mum, brought out a bunch of old Star Wars figurines that Aaron and his sister used to play with as kids. Leena lovingly explained to Ruby who all the characters (that she could remember) were and what Star Wars is all about. What you see above is Ruby's portrait of Princess Leia. This is just about the greatest thing I've seen since Ruby's inauguration day portrait of President Obama. I love the buns. Oh, the buns.

This brings up another point: do any of you feel like you're inadvertently forcing your kids to live in a time warp? Ruby has no idea that the original Star Wars is a dinosaur of a movie and would be laughed at by today's standards because there's no computer graphics. She has no idea of who Hannah Montana is (thank God), but loves T-Rex. She freaked out the other day when I told her John Lennon was dead -- she though he died that day. Her favourite toys are Care Bears and My Little Pony and Barbies, who are dressed in thrift store clothes from the '70s. I guess it's natural that I would transfer my own tastes to her and try to relive a little bit of my own childhood, but am I doing a disservice to her? Is it wrong that my kid thinks it's 1982... or 1978 or whatever?

Art, Part 2

Ruby has spent the last two weeks attending a class at our local arts centre (which is the most awesome thing in the world). Every morning she'd go in and work on her art. Ruby likes drawing and painting, but she's lacked confidence in actually drawing things other than stick people because she'd complain "I don't know hooooooow!" She's a bit of a perfectionist, that one. This class was awesome because the teacher would chose a subject and do her own example and then act as a taskmaster, making sure the kids got it right. There wasn't a lot of creative free will, but Ruby kind of needed that sort of detailed instruction. As a result, she made some great stuff and her confidence has grown.


I love these pictures so much, my heart weeps when I look at them. Up top you've got a chicken jumping over a fence, then a t-shirt featuring a peacock(!) and finally, a button with a cowgirl portrait on it. The cowgirl also exists in the form of an awesome painting, but the art centre asked to keep it so they could submit it to a city wide children's art show next year. We won't get it back until June, but I'm pretty sure I'll frame it when we get it back (though, by then Ruby's art will have probably advanced, rendering it too childish for her own tastes).


Speaking of Ruby, she's downstairs right now listening to old kids records from the '60s on her vintage Fisher Price turntable. So awesome.

Watercolours

Since returning from Hawaii we've been staying at my parents house (quick update: our kitchen cupboards have been installed and our living room re-drywalled, but our house is still basically uninhabitable). Ruby gets bored quickly here and we're so out of routine, but she has been entertaining herself by painting. And she's really into these swirly watercolours.


Roo really puts the "water" into watercolours, these little paintings are almost soaked through by the time she finishes them, but they dry up pretty nicely. And she actually has a pretty good sense of colour and composition. She cranks out about five of these every day and I really love them. Next stop: easter eggs!

Ruby Tuesday

All apologies to Ward (he of the inspiring Ava Thursday), but I felt compelled to share some Ruby art. After sharing Ruby's correspondence with her friend Simon, I thought I'd show you the picture that she drew to send along with her letter. Ruby's art is still usually pretty abstract, but I had the suspicion that she could draw actual people if she felt like it. So, I casually suggested that she might want to draw a picture of Simon himself to send to Toronto. She sat down and came up with this beauty -- the first actual drawing of humans that I've seen from her.

From left to right, you've got Ruby, Simon's baby sister Stella, and Simon. Ruby felt bad that she didn't include Simon's body, but I told her that it's just perfect the way it is. And it is. Perfect.