Creativity

Each of my kids has a unique creative "talent". Oldest Boy is fantastic at building anything - ANY-THING - out of Legos (as in, if he sees a toy on TV and he knows there's no way he's going to be receiving one any time soon, he'll head to his blocks and make his own). Youngest Boy then takes those Lego creations and spins a tale that will make your head swim with the cleverness of it (Hey, I'm his mom. I can say he's the next Steven Spielberg if I wanna.). Their current "movie" revolves around the Crash Bandicoot video game and their stuffed animals. I don't ask. It keeps them occupied for HOURS.

Baby Girl likes to draw. On anything. With anything. Whatever. She is content "painting" the driveway for hours with a paintbrush and water. The world is her canvas (and occasionally the living room walls, but she's mostly outgrown that).

I'm still anxious to see for certain what Little One's talent is going to be but I'm a little skerred. My oldest children all have their own loveys which they have named - predictably - Bear (because he's a bear), Puppy (because he's a beagle pup), and Kitty (technically, she's Peanut Butter Kitty but that's only because her paw "accidentally" landed in the peanut butter shortly after she was received. She's a kitty.) Little One doesn't have a lovey, per se, but she does seem to have a talent for giving stuffed animals actual names. Similar to my Aunt E.

My Aunt E gave her dogs (and other various animals - and there have been A LOT) names that no one could pronounce. Personally, I think she did it to screw with my grandpa (her dad) because dude can't even pronounce the simple names correctly. You should hear the way he pronounces Lemieux. (Thank God the Pens have Crosby!) Her first dog that I can remember was a german shepherd named Schlemenel (I am totally making up the spelling but I'm hoping you'll get the pronunciation). And then she had an English Sheepdog name Chygladon. He was the dog that caused me to fall in love with dogs (he used to hide behind the clothesline pole - sideways - and thought we couldn't see him!). After she met her husband the names became more...normal - at least for the dogs. And her son (whew!).

But when Little One picked up her sister's Zhu Zhu pet and started calling it "Buzz" my ears pricked up a bit. The other one is called BeeBee. I don't know why. I just know that it's a heck of a lot more creative than "hamster" and "hamster junior" which is what I am 100 percent certain the other kids would have named them!

I forgot to mention Aunt E's box turtles - Didiluch and Bazileo and her, uh, mole like mouse thingy name Amiotorone. See why I'm worried!