Cayden is a creator.  He loves to create something.  He takes joy in a finished coloring page.  He takes joy in drawing a picture for me.  He values my words about what he creates.

Since his mom is not a creator I try to find things to stimulate this side of him.  This past year he was enrolled in an art class once a week.  It was awesome and he did so well!  I loved his anticipation as to what he would make each Monday as we drove to class.

Every day before school he would say the same thing to me.  As we were getting ready or eating breakfast he would look at me and say “What will I make today?”.  He was already thinking about what he would create.  His mind just works that way.

Today was his first day of VBS at a local church.  He was super excited and we went over a million times about using our manners, speaking up when someone talks to you and reciting his first and last name.  We were prepared!

As I picked him up he seemed happy and as usual was most excited about showing me his works of art.  We ran out to the hall to find his pile of stuff.  You know how they do it at churchs, they line all the kids works of art in the hall and then all their stuff is together.   We found his pile and there is only one thing there.  Most of the piles have two.  He tells me that something he did isn't there.  I could see he was about to loose it.  His eyes were looking at me as if they were saying “mom what i made isn't here, you have to find it.”

So I pulled his nice teacher aside and asked her if she had anything else that he might have “created”.  She said there was nothing else they had done that wasn't out there.  Cayden looked at me and shook his head as if to tell me, “no mom, she's lying, check again!”.  So I asked Cayden what he was talking about.  He looked at me and then looked at her and said “the flower picture”.  Immediately the teacher knew what he was talking about.  She explained to me and reminded Cayden that those were pieces of a quilt that everyone decorated and then they were going to make it into a nice quilt for someone that is in need.  It was as if her words sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher to him.  He wasn't buying it!

He couldn't understand how he wasn't bringing home what he made.  We almost had a full on four year old melt down right there in the church hall, that we're not members of, surrounded by underwater creatures that decorated the hall.  He argued with the teacher.  Telling her he wanted what he had made.  I just nodded at her and told her I would take care of it, we'd talk about it in the car.  We stopped down the hall and I knelt down on his level and tried to express my sympathy to him for not being able to take home the flower he drew.  I talked about charity and helping others.  Still nothing.  He wanted the flower.  Finally I gave up and we headed to the car.

He was silent the whole way home.  I tried to talk he wouldn't.  He was mad.  You see, he is a creator.  He loves to make something and bring it home and show it off.  It did NOT make sense why he had made something and was not bringing it home.

Finally after lunch he looked at me and asked if the quilt would help someone.  I went over the whole thing again and he smiled and seemed to have gotten it.  I told him we could ask his teacher if we could see the quilt at the end of the week.  That seemed to make him happy.

Oh the problems of four year old's!  I think we might deal with this again, since the craft scheduled listed 2 other days where the projects will be donated to a different organization.  Oh no!  Not again!  A long week of life lessons is ahead of us!