Something unexpected

(Readers of delicate disposition may wish to exercise judgement before proceeding...).

So, what do you think this is?







It began when I was cleaning out my filing cabinet. I found a plastic bag marked "biohazard". How odd, I thought to myself. What on earth could be in here?






Ewww! Ewan's umbilical stump!


Although isn't it just a fascinating....thing...

Isabelle assisted by digging out a little hole in Ewan's pot.





And the mummified stump was reunited with the rest of its - stuff. Placenta remains I guess, although I hope they are long gone.





Ah, that's better!

Orla art

Orla is a prolific artist, aided recently by new paint pens for Christmas, and a ready supply of paper due to our big post-Christmas declutter.

Here they all are enjoying the new supplies. Orla is working on one of her more detailed works.


However, sometimes quantity seems to be the focus. Nevertheless, there's a lot of brainwork going on in the background.

For this one, Orla said:
"For you Mummy!"
I made the classic mistake of presuming what was in the picture.
"Oh, two people".
"No, it's not two people. It's me [points to the one with hair] and a statue!"

Of course.




Seconds later:
"The babies are out at the beach with their Mummy and Daddy. They are in one tent, which is this tent [the green outline]".



Followed closely by:

"The babies in a castle with their Mummy and Daddy".



"Splashes out of the blue water going up and down".



And then, intriguingly:

"You can think about what the green things are that are shooting out of the water. [Pause]. They are fishes. The babies are here caughting (sic) them! There's me, there's C [friend], there's M [friend - all while pointing to blank parts of the page]. We're caughting them and putting them in a fish bag".



And finally:

"Me inside a green bubble".



Orla was particularly pleased to find some little square pieces of paper in the sea of white A4.

So what's going on here? We could think about the brainwork behind the pictures in terms of schema theory. From a very young age, Orla has been an encloser, which developed further into the related enveloping. The subjects of the first three pictures are all enclosed (in a tent, a castle, and a non-specific boundary). The fish are inside a fish bag. And Orla is pictured in her imagination inside a green bubble. There's possible trajectory elements too, with the fishes leaping out of the water, and splashes of blue.

Putting on more of a socio-cultural lens, Orla draws what is relevant to her. Families, including babies. Friends. Fishing expeditions. Holiday time - children out with Mummy and Daddy.

I quite liked the final "green bubble" picture. A real work of the imagination!