Poultry in the alphabet hallway

Side note: I don't know why the last 4 pictures here are sideways.  I'll try reuploading them again later and hope that blogger is working better.  For now, turn your computer or your head 90 degrees to the left.  If you have a desktop, I suggest turning your head.

I've been in major DIY mode the past few days.  Maya & I took a trip to Lakeshore over the weekend, where I had to restrain myself from buying up every alphabet/sight words/colors/shapes/numbers product that they have.  I bought a bunch of stuff and walked around snapping cell phone photos of everything that made me think "I could make that at home.".

(Side philosophical note: I am not a huge proponent of forced education on little kids.  I think toddlers should get to play like toddlers.  But Maya loves letters . . . and she loves words.  Her favorite hobby this week is sitting on the floor and reading magazines, pointing and yelling at the pages that have ads with giant font letters.  So if she likes letters and words, then I'm going to surround her with them.   For as long as she is nonverbal, she will be underestimated by the masses, and I'm going to help her get as friggin' smart as she can, so that she will surprise and enlighten many people . . . teaching them not to judge a book by its cover, for sure.)

Anyway, I've been busy with my trusty laminator:

I totally love one project that I did today.  I bought alphabet cards, trimmed them so that I could squeeze in 2 per laminating pouch, cut them out, and lined the hallway with them (at Maya's eye level, not mine). (They have to be laminated because otherwise they would likely be crumpled/bent/torn up at some point)

laid out and ready to tape up

One side done

She was pretty excited to wake up from her nap and see a letter-filled hallway :)

As I walked past the kitchen, I noticed that it was looking very industrious today as well.  Those are some herbs from a weekend fair that I need to repot, a rice cooker that was making rice for tonight's dinner, and my crockpot, in which I'm attempting to make homemade yogurt.  If it works out, it will be a delicious money saver----but I'm not counting on anything until I taste the first batch.

And Maya had a typical 4-therapy Monday.  During the day's last session, I shot a little video.  Just typical therapy . . .

Oh yeah, except the ducklings were back.  And big enough now that they just waddled free.  Dave came home, got changed, peeked into the living room and said "There are ducks?  Wandering around our apartment?"  Seems about right, I think. 

Maya was delighted to see them again, especially was one frisky duckling started tickling her:

Hey!  That's my foot!

Oh, duckie, that is just too tickly!

Virginia got them to follow her into the hallway . . . 

. . . and when they decided to all lay down, we said "Maya, look, the ducks are tired.  They're resting."  . . . so she decided that it would be best to lay down and rest, too.

Goodnight, ducks.  I'm right here if you want to cuddle.