Baxter has become a drawing fiend. I wish I could transport one of his pictures on to here, but they’re all done the old fashioned way - on paper, with crayons.

He’s really big in to giant swirls at the moment. He likes to keep his drawings on one piece of paper and after a few wall-meets-crayon mishaps, he knows to ask for “pabar”. He also likes for us to draw with him. He’ll ask you to draw a “mao” (cat), a car, a star, a digger, a baby, a fish … He even drew his own mao tonight. It looked like a squashed snail, but there was some substance there.

He also likes doing these tiny little doodles with pen. I think it may be him writing.

I’m often wondering what Baxter will be good at or interested in when he grows up. He likes bikes and wheels so I wonder if he’s going to be a Lance Armstrong or Tony Hawk, he likes singing so I decide he’s a musical genius, and now art so of course he’s the next Picaso, or Hotere, or whoever.

It’s interesting how quickly you can fall in to being ‘that kind of parent’. I can  understand it though, I’m searching for answers to who Baxter is, and who he is going to be. It’s simple to use labels you already know, and you love your child so much it’s easy to start thinking they must be shining like this for all.

A toddler is such a mystery. I just have no idea what’s going through his head and we’re having a few moments where he says something to me and looks at me expectantly but I have no idea what he’s saying. That person who he is, and is going to be, is starting to unravel. It’s going to be an amazing process to watch. And I wouldn’t mind if that person did turn out to be an artist, even a struggling one. We’ll keep the crayoning going.

Posted at 9:40pm.