What You Miss When Kids Grow Up

Back to school time was always a delight for me. I loved shopping for school supplies--especially Crayon® boxes.

I love the distinctive smell of those pieces of colored wax. I don’t know how Craola® infuses that aroma in its products, but one sniff and I’m carried back to my school days and to my kids’ school days.

Smell Triggers Memories

There are moments when I am overcome with emotion and wish my kids were little again so we could all sit at the kitchen table and draw pictures or open a coloring book and create a masterpiece.

Today there are all kinds of “bells and whistle” Crayons. Markers of every description. Magic Crayons that only work on special surfaces. (If they’d had those when my youngest was a toddler, it would have saved several sets of sheets. More about that later.) Multicultural Crayons, triangular Crayons, Studio Design Crayons, and so many more. I’m a purist. I like the original ones best because they’re the ones with that smell.

Bed Linen Designs by My Crayon-Wielding Daughter

Many of you know that my daughter Adina Mayo is an artist. What you may not know is that her first artistic efforts were drawing designs on the sheets in her bed with a purple crayon. As she explained to me, the purple flowers she drew looked better than the pink flowers on the sheets. She was about 2 1/2 years old at the time--and was supposed to be taking a nap.

Now she creates designs for Adina's Spoonflower Shop. The designs can be used for fabric, wallpaper, and gift wrap. She also is a fabulous graphic artist who designs book covers for authors. She designed all of my book covers.

My Duh Moment

When she was in 5th grade, she brought me the shavings from her Crayon sharpener and spread them out on a piece of paper and asked me to tell her what I saw. I looked at the colorful fragments and said I didn’t see anything, but that all the shavings together were pretty. She nodded, looked at me, and said, “That’s because it’s art.”

In that moment, I knew she had some special aesthetic sense.


Takeaway Truth

Wow.  I miss those days. I may have to get the Crayon bucket out and a couple of tissues. Enjoy your children while they're young. It really is true that time flies too swiftly.