On the Couch Road

Sunday, June 13th, 2021

Akiva loves to play with his cars on the back of the couch in front of the north window in the library.

 

 

 

He explains to me that it is because this couch has roads.

 

 

 

Whatever these cars are up to, I suspect that it is something that should definitely not be done on a road.

 

 

 

CRASH! BAM!

 

Tea with Monsters: A Grand Celebration

Saturday, June 5th, 2021

To celebrate the arrival of the Pestalotiopsis monster into the family, we had a tea party.

 

 

 

 

Iris brought Peggy, Napua, and Rethabile.

 

 

 

 

Akiva brought Hymie, Pest (who sometimes accidentally sits on his tail), and the Lego Monster.

 

 

 

 

Pest was not at all happy with mere tea, so Akiva cooked him up a big skillet of stuff.

 

 

 

 

…waiting for the stuff to finish cooking…

 

 

 

 

…almost done now!

 

 

 

 

Hymie & the girls drank tea.

 

 

 

 

 

Pest had a bit of everything.

 

 

 

 

We didn’t serve the Lego Monster because he only eats people and we don’t serve people at tea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper Block Man

Sunday, March 28th, 2021

Setting: Moderately messy playroom.

Children seem to be distracted from play due to the presence of their father.

 

 

 

The father is focused on his workβ€” a block sculptureβ€” and appears to take little notice of the children.

 

 

 

Because he did not play with blocks enough as a child, he has trouble getting them to balance.

 

 

 

Fortunately, that does not deter him.

 

 

 

Determined to make up for lost time, he begins again each time they fall.

 

 

 

Finally we have it: a French-man with a full belly.

 

 

 

Egg, orange, peach, banana. Toast, fish, strawberry, apple.

The children return to their play.

 

Flurry

Thursday, February 18th, 2021

Today’s snowflakeβ€”

 

Snowflake

Monday, February 15th, 2021

Akiva and I have been having fun playing with geometric wooden pattern blocks together.

He says we need more.

 

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could…”

Saturday, January 16th, 2021

There was an argument. I bricked up the doorway and told them they would need to solve their own problems. Immediately, the problem was solved, but the bricks remained. Now when they argue inside, I say, “I can take down the wall or you can solve the problem yourself.” For now, they like the wall.

 

 

 

I enjoy my key-hole view of a place reserved exclusively for children.

 

 

 

 

 

“I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up.

Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones.

For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!”

β€” Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amantillado

I forget where he said he was trying to goβ€”

Tuesday, October 20th, 2020

Marbles

Saturday, August 15th, 2020

Train Engine at the Station (Unit Blocks)

Wednesday, May 13th, 2020

Akiva asked Martin to play with blocks. Martin wanted to build something new: I started building parking garages for Akiva’s cars a few years ago, & although it’s not getting old for Akiva, who is four, Martin who is 48, is a bit more ambitious. He took out his phone for inspiration. A few hours later, one engine and one coal car stood on a slightly-elevated track at a train station. Fantastic!

 

 

 

 

The engineer climbs into the engine.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the people get off the orange bus. They wait to board the platform.

 

 

 

 

Slowly, slowly they climb a great staircase where one single rise is higher than their shoulder.

 

 

 

 

The people at the top of the platform mill about,

discussing where they will sit.

 

 

 

 

“There is an engine and a coal car,” one person says.

“The engineer won’t let us ride with him, and the conductor won’t let us ride in the coal car!”

“Where does this train go, anyway?” says another person.

 

 

 

 

An angry mob debarks the platform. One person is trampled in the rush.

 

 

 

 

Infuriated by the inconvenience, they storm back to their bus.

 

 

 

 

Still, the train waits at the station. Where does this train go?

 

 

On the Playroom Overpass

Sunday, February 9th, 2020

 

By the time I arrived with my camera,

 

 

 

the shenanigans had been going on for some time.

 

 

 

It was Martin who built the overpass in the playroom,

 

 

 

but I couldn’t make sense of the commotion.

 

 

 

A loaded bus brings some people to the off-ramp side.

 

 

 

They join what is, in my eyes, a sit-in (or lie-in) of sorts, protesting traffic on the bridge.

 

 

 

A womanβ€” played by the dollhouse mamaβ€” seems to be in charge.

 

 

 

 

A swing set is erected on the overpass.

 

 

 

Deals are made, people exchanged.

 

 

 

 

 

Abruptly, the mood turns.

 

 

 

The dollhouse mama, whatever her mission had been, is now cast to the shadows.

 

 

 

Traffic is returning to the overpass!

 

 

 

Engines ROAR as the truck ascends the ramp!

 

 

 

People load up the bus to go. Their blankets are hastily removed.

 

 

 

The arc and the swing set are removed; the ATV is loaded on to the car transporter.

 

 

 

Fully loaded, the great truck begins its perilous descent.

 

 

 

Calamity! On the way down, part of the bridge collapses!

 

 

 

The engineer is brought in to administer repairs.

 

 

 

Brrrm brrrm brrrm…

 

 

 

The arc and the controller return to the bridge.

 

 

 

The truck makes its way under the overpass,

 

 

 

circles on the cloverleaf,

 

 

 

 

and ascends.

 

 

 

*   *   *

 

Later, we go for a walk in the woods.

Iris takes out a magnifying glass in attempt to determine whether the green on a tree is a moss or a lichen.

She determines it is a lichen.