Combining favorites

I decided to add another of the boy's favorite things to today's doodle. I also felt like our cute little elephant could use a friend. 

The boy's favorite food is watermelon. I felt like Wednesday was a perfect day to add watermelon into the mix. Alliteration for the win.

No one should eat a watermelon by themselves. That's just asking for a stomachache, so the little elephant needed someone to share his snack with. I figured I would ignore the belief that elephants are afraid of mice, and drew a little mouse next to our elephant.

Little Elephant will probably show up again tomorrow. I think he'll have a new friend. I'm just not sure who is going to drop by to visit.

Everything is cuter with an elephant

I found this cute little elephant through a google search. I love him. I hope the boy will love him too, given his adoration of pachyderms. The original elephant wasn't holding anything. I thought he should be.

Why tea? Because it's the first letter of Tuesday, and I happened to be drinking a cuppa at the time I drew the elephant. Plus, I thought my little saying was a lot more clever than what I came up with yesterday. 

This little friend is so cute, that he might stick around for the rest of the week. 

Monday is not a good pun day

Poor Monday. Everyone's least favorite day of the week. It's so hard to get back into a smooth routine after a weekend. Especially a busy one filled with birthday parties and Renaissance Faires.

I tried so hard this morning to come up with a cute pun. I drew this fun little dragon:

"Mondays are drag'n."
"Don't be drag'n your feet."
"Mondays are such a drag.....n...."

It wasn't working out for me. You can see that I took the easy way out. Sure, this dragon isn't breathing fire, but he probably can breathe fire. He just doesn't feel like it right now.

Do you ever feel like Monday saps the creativity right out of you? Good, because that means I'm not alone. We all know misery loves company. Maybe I'll be more clever tomorrow.

Little Monsters

While sending a friend a Facebook message this morning, I realized there were some icons in the bottom right side of the window. Turns out, Facebook has little "stickers" that you can send embedded in a message. Apparently I'm old, and really out of touch with technology because I never realized this option was there.

The stickers are cute little pictures, most of which correspond with an emotion. I was feeling happy, so I sent a happy little monster his way. I loved the little guy so much that I doodled him for the boy.

Seriously, what's not to love about that cute little face?

I love this little guy, and I feel like I might be creating more of these little monsters for future doodles. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday!

Potential

I have always been partial to the wise old mentor in movies and books. This always sets me up for heartbreak. The heroic arc requires that the mentor die, or something terrible happen to them in order for the hero to grow. A hero cannot reach their full potential in the shadow of their mentor, so the lovable elder gets the axe. 

The mentors get the best lines, the ones filled with sage wisdom. 

The boy is very into Ninjago at the moment, so we've been watching lego ninjas fight evil for weeks. Of course, the ninjas have a wise sensei, Sensei Wu*, that guides them through their journey to master the secrets of Spinjitsu*. Yes, that's a thing. I didn't make it up. Essentially, the ninjas spin in tornadoes of elemental fury and it destroys their enemies. 

Obviously, I could discuss the finer points of Ninjago for hours, so I'll stop myself here. In honor of the wise Sensei Wu, here is today's doodle.

* I have no idea how any of this is spelled, and am taking my best guess.

Coming back after a long weekend

The family and I took a quick trip down to Corolla, NC, so the boy missed the first two days of school this week. That's right, I haven't fallen off of this daily-blog wagon yet.

We got in super late last night (early this morning, honestly). The boy slept the entire way home, so he wasn't suffering this morning like his Papa and I were. Even a few days away can disrupt the rhythm of the morning routine. It was a bit of a scramble today, but everyone made it where they needed to be on time.

Due to my harried lunch prep, I didn't have as much doodle time as I normally do. I fell back on something I used to doodle in the margins of notebooks while I was in high school.

I used to sing that song to him all of the time when he was smaller. He makes requests now at bedtime, and, alas! This song never makes the cut. It's all Row, Row, Row Your Boat and the ABC's these days. I still manage to sneak this one in every once in a while though.

Do you have a favorite song to sing with your little one?

The cyclical nature of pop culture

We all know that fashion trends are cyclical. As I get older, I'm noticing that pop culture runs in a big circle as well. All of the cartoons and characters that were popular when I was a child are being revived, and this generation of children loves them just as much. My inner child thinks this is wonderful. The adult part of me doesn't like it as much. The characters are different from the ones I remember, sometimes not for the better. Like the modernized Strawberry Shortcake. Not very enthusiastic about the changes they made there.

The Peanuts movies are some of my favorite holiday films to watch. I love the characters, Snoopy in particular. They're releasing a new Peanuts movie this Fall. I want to be excited about it, but I can't. I'm so worried they're going to ruin the characters I love so much. I don't want to replace my fond memories with lukewarm ones.

This rant is brought to you courtesy of today's lunch doodle, and the timelessness that is Snoopy's charm.

Here's a big Friday hug from a very happy Snoopy. I hope your weekend is filled with so much happiness that you feel like dancing!

An elephant never forgets

My little one's favorite animals are elephants. He has good taste. I love them too. Dumbo is one of his favorite movies. I don't know whether he loves the movie because it has elephants in it, or if he loves the animals because of the movie. Either way, they have been his favorite for as long as I can remember.

You'd think I would have drawn an elephant for the first doodle, but I didn't. Why? Because there is a serious lack of cute puns to go with elephants. This is the best I could come up with.

I had every intention of making that a heart-shaped balloon. And then I drew the trunk too close to the edge of the paper towel. 

This little guy was fun to draw, and I see more elephants in little man's future.

One of those moms

My son started all-day preschool this year. For the first time, I'm packing lunches. The first day of school rolled around, and I found myself remembering the lunches my mother packed for me. She had these little notecards with Suzy's Zoo characters on them, and she would always toss one in my lunch bag. It was a sweet reminder of home in the middle of a crazy school day. I decided I wanted to share those warm fuzzies with my son.

That leads us back to his first day of school. I, of course, haven't planned ahead, and have no cutesie notecards to tuck into his lunch. So, I improvised. I grabbed a Micron pen and a paper towel, and I doodled my own love note.

This first blog post has all of the doodles from day one until now. My goal is to post a new doodle each day. I'm realizing as I type this, that it makes more sense to start this on a Monday, but you'll learn quickly that sense and I aren't close bedfellows.

Do any of you have lunchbox rituals for your children? Are there any fellow doodlers out there? I'd love to see pics if you've got them!

Day 1: A little Minion love.

Day 2: Ninjago

Day 3: Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies

Day 4: Mario

Day 5: The puns begin with an adorable robot

Day 6: Bat pun

Day 7: Bunny love

Day 8: Moonbear

Day 9: Another nut pun, this one with a squirrel companion

And that brings us up to date! Hope to post a new doodle tomorrow.