Kids’ creations are sweet

And as that big box comes closer to overflowing A construction-paper Cookie Monster (with big googly eyes). A Christmas-time reindeer with a red pompom nose and traced handprint antlers. A brightly crayon-colored Very Hungry Caterpillar. A popsicle-stick-and-marker picture frame that was my husband’s Father’s Day gift back in 2007. A swirly blue ... something ... in another popsicle-stick frame.

The sad truth: Some of it had to go, both to make it possible to actually see the fridge and to make room for future creations. But what?Could Rudolph join his paper brethren in the big box in our backroom? What about Cookie Monster and VHC? And the blue swirly thingy?What about the clay (or paper maché, or something) blue glittery spider-like critter with pipe-cleaner legs that came home from school in June? It’s currently perched atop the dining-room hutch, looking ominously like something out of a bad Syfy channel movie.

And as that big box comes closer to overflowing ... would some of it actually have to go to the big garbage can in the skyThe thought made me queasy. How could I throw this stuff away? This was my baby’s life we were talking about, from the first crayon-scrawled picture to the latest finger-painted masterpiece.And now it’s starting again. Two-year-old Sam doesn’t have the benefit of school-inspired creation yet, but he’s made his own construction-paper artwork at various events. And unlike Jim, he loves to color simply for the sake of creation, sitting at the table stamer with a fistful of crayons and blank paper, then proudly turning his rainbow somethings over for admiration.