I was lying on the floor with my eyes closed, ready to take a quick nap, when my 3 year old niece came and sat on my stomach.  She had a Berenstain’s Bear book in her hands and was deeply engrossed in the book; she didn’t seem to mind that I wasn’t a chair.

“Anie! Get off of me.”

“Oh sorry.”

I picked her up by the waist and set her on the kiddie table, all the while she was still holding and reading the book, posture unchanged. As I was about to walk away and get back to my nap, I noticed a piece of paper with a giant green scribble.

“What is this Anie?”

“That’s a leaf.”

“Anie, that’s a line.”

“No that’s a leaf.”

Seeing that there was no point in arguing, I took a green crayon and drew a leaf.

“That’s a leaf.”

She looked down and stared at it for a while. She set the book aside and traced the edges of the leaf.  And then she looked up at me.

“Draw a butterfly.”

I wasn’t in the mood to say no and because I got nothing better to do, I picked up a different crayon and drew a butterfly.

“Now a smilie face.”

Took another crayon and drew: Circle, dot, dot, and a big grin.

“A flower.”

The flower was a little more complicated. I had to get the petals and stamens and the leaves just right.  And I wanted a background to go with it too.  It took a little more work than the other pictures but in the end I got a masterpiece nice flower.

“There you go, Anie. Ha ha! Look at what your uncle drew.”

“Thank you. I’m gonna show it to Mommy.”

And she did.  Her mommy liked it and was proud.  Anie was happy and I was happy because I made this nice moment happen.  My uncle duties were done for the month.

The next day, I came home and proceeded to fall into my routine of lying on the floor and napping.  My niece then came up to me and tapped me on my face.

“Cau Cau Don?”

“Hm?”

She was holding a paper and crayon.

“Can you draw a leaf? and a butterfly, and a simile face, and a flower?”

“Again? I drew you that yesterday. Don’t you want something else Anie, like a bee?”

“No. I want a leaf, a butterfly, a smilie face, and a flower.”

“Jesus. Ok, where’s the green crayon?”

And so almost everyday, my niece would ask me to draw these four things for her and everyday I would.  And she would collect them and pile them up and keep them somewhere, where she would, from time to time, take them out and look at them.