Since it’s casual Friday, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some funny thoughts and sightings with you. I shared my son’s amazing discovery earlier this week on my Every Day I See a Cow blog, but what good does it do you if you’re not a subscriber? So here we go…
I like to see myself as a creative person. I write, I draw, I paint, I make things with my hands, and as a the queen of klutz I sometimes manage to create art out of my misadventures (remember the yogurt bunny I made almost a year ago?). On the carpet of course, not the easier-to-clean tile.
Yogurt bunny
I like to look at clouds in the sky and see funny shapes. Sometimes I even manage to take pictures of them.
Elephant cloud
For those of you who can’t see it, this cloud is shaped like an elephant head. Yes, it is! Lots of spring clouds in San Diego happen to take the shape of elephants, with long trunks. I’m not sure why but I’m not complaining!
My kids seem to take after my creative side, especially when it comes to creating art with food. Their favorite art supplies? Tomato sauce and blueberries, of course. They always manage to create permanent stains masterpieces on their clothing when eating painting with them. Just kidding. My oldest drew his first fruit bowl a couple of months ago, before he turned five. This was a completely unsolicited creation that blew my mind away. You can guess the kid is half-French (ha!). I’d like to add he’s a fan of Paul Cézanne but I don’t believe he saw any of the famous painter’s fruit bowl masterpieces before he drew this one.
Children's artwork - fruit bowl
Something wonderful about my son is that he’s highly observant, able to notice things about his surroundings most kids and adults would never see, even if you pointed them in the right direction. Earlier this week, he made his most amazing discovery yet. Can you tell I’m beaming with pride? Wait till you see what it is. We stopped by Panda Express for lunch and at my kids’ request, one of the items we ordered was orange chicken. I’m not sure about the nutritional value of our choice, but the sweet tangy taste is irresistible.
Halfway through our meal, my oldest blurted out: There’s a pig on my plate! I felt the urge to correct him right away, tell him he was eating chicken. But he seemed so insistent to show me, I had to look. So I turned his plate my way and that’s when my jaw dropped. There was a darn pig on his plate, made out of orange chicken. Here it is, in all of its cuteness!
Orange chicken pig at Panda Express
You may disagree but I think it resembles a pig a lot more than all of the Jesus faces people claim they see on their toast and sell on ebay for a fortune. Unfortunately I don’t believe there’s any story about a holy pig anywhere so this pig wouldn’t have been our “get-rich-quick” scheme. So we did the next best thing. We ate it and it tasted delicious!
Perfecting Motherhood 
Haha that piece of chicken does look like a pig! Your son has a good eye! I like the picture of the elephant cloud too, I’ll have to ask my brother if he’s seen any of those while living there.
Thanks! We rarely have clouds in our San Diego sky (mostly sunny really does apply here) and definitely not puffy clouds. So where we get to see clouds, I always try to spot shapes with my kids. I loved doing it as a kid too.
It does look like a pig and I see the elephant head too! (Shame they weren’t cows).
I am constantly spotting cows everywhere and thinking of you!
The fruit bowl is brilliant. He’s got definite talent.
Oh, a cow cloud, how cool would it be? unfortunately we don’t get that many clouds here, so it may be hard to spot. I may have more luck finding one in the orange chicken! Sorry about the cow spottings…
Thanks for the fruit bowl comment. I was floored when he decided to draw it and when I saw the results. I definitely want to encourage his drawing and give him the opportunity to learn new drawing and painting skills.
Your son is very talented! If he’s drawing that good NOW, I can only imagine how good he will be as he gets older! :)
Thanks. I tried to remember that as his mom, I’m biased. But as a creative person myself, I can see his emerging talent. Even his preschool teacher said he was the one with the most artistic talent in the class, so there must be something there to encourage. Pretty cool!
I love this post! the piece of chicken is spot on!
Haha, thank you! I really have to look more closely at our orange chicken next time but I believe this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, especially since the chicken pig was sitting exactly like that on the plate when my son spotted it.
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