When your preschooler comes to you for the upteenth time with a drawing he's made and he's, oh so proudly showing it off, what, exactly, are you supposed to say? "Oh honey, this is sooo beautiful!!" Isn't t here a law about how many times a day you can say that? "Oh honey, what a nice..uh, ...." Isn't there a limit to how many times he's going to fill in the blank for you?

Questions like this plagued me when my son was at the early stages of drawing. I wanted to be encouraging without being phoney, helpful without being hokey. What's more, I wanted to know: Do these squiggles have any meaning? Is there something I should know about them? So, like so many issues in my parenting, I did some research and wrote a column. It's below. I suppose this is an odd one to include in my all-time-favorite list but I love it because it is a reminder of a very specific time in my son's life, and also because I learned so much in the process of reporting. I hope you will, too.