Mirrored bindis

Another mirror-bindi constellation.

Mirrored bindis

For me, being married to a Bengali woman means lots of bindis in our house, and adding a toddler to the mix means bindis in many unexpected places. As we've been parenting at home during the pandemic, my wife has discovered that bindis are excellent craft toys for our toddler, who enjoys making lots of patterns with them, like this constellation being doubled in the mirror on our bedroom door.

Colorful louvres

 Louvres on our toddler's closet door make a wonderful washboard pattern for bouncing crayons down.

Wall scribbles

 Scribbles on our toddler's wall, as she experimented with crayons during naptime.

Toddler sign

I have learned to accept crayon on the windows of our toddler's room. Not in other rooms, but her room is allowed to be very colorful indeed.

Toddler discovers laundry chute

When our toddler first discovered the marvels of the laundry chute, she took her next unsupervised opportunity to go the linen closet and empty it, piece by piece, down the chute until something jammed and she had filled it to the top. This is what it looked like one floor down, bulging out into the room as I worked to unclog it later. This was one of those parental Schroedinger moments existing simultaneously in a state of great delight and terminal frustration.

Toddler cooking

Another toddler "cooking" project.

Muffin cups

A close-up on the inverted and dimpled muffin cups, emphasizing their carefully deliberate shaping and arrangement.

Muffin cups

Muffin cups apparently lend themselves well for sensory exploration also. To my eyes, these form a surprisingly sensuous and beautiful semi-regular pattern.
 

Muffin cups

As our toddler continued to grow and explore the unlocked drawers of the kitchen, she discovered that our silicone muffin cups were a remarkably wonderful and versatile colorful sensory toy.

Kitty's dice lunch

Another lunch for Hello Kitty, this one with not just pompom/wood-shape soup, but also an assortment of sorted dice in different colors.

Kitty's lunch

Our toddler has been doing cooking projects of a different sort, making dishes that she serves to her favorite stuffed animals.
 

Colorful ice tray

Left behind when the colored ice was extracted, the tray itself was awfully colorful.
 

Colored ice

My older daughter has been experimenting with cooking projects of various sorts. This one was food coloring in fruit soda to make tasty colored ice.

Boppy kitty

A snuggly family image for Valentine's day: one upon a time our Boppy pillows supported our children as they nursed, but now they have been handed down to our cat Salvatore, who finds they make a perfect form for him to nest in.

Floral mural

 A lovely floral mural on the side of a shed at the Belgum Grove preserve.

Teepee radio

Found in another park: a rusted out old car radio, set in the center of a rough teepee frame of sticks. I wonder whether the teepee came first, and somebody decided to enshrine their radio within it, or if the radio was discarded first and somebody decided to build a teepee around it.

Stark tree

 A stark cold tree against a cloudy winter sky.

Fen logs

I don't know why these harvested logs in a riverside park are labelled "Fen 1" and "Fen 2", but there was a whole line of them with various labels in different colors.

Tire Eagle

An apparently home-made larger-than-life-size Eagle statue centers a patriotic display, perched on a big old tractor tire.

Pinwheel

 Rusted up old metal pinwheel, congealed on a fence beside the trail.

Bird sculpture

In the more Northern parts of the Sycamore trail, a sculpture invoking flying birds stands near a branching of the trails.

Leaves against the sky

Broad leaves against a deep blue sky.
 

Jersey Barriers

 Another pile of Jersey barriers, from another angle.

Jersey Barriers

A tumbled pile of concrete Jersey barriers at the sewage plant.

Drains

 A pile of rusty metal drains, heavy steel scattered on the ground.

Concrete pipes

More concrete pipes, somewhat smaller, lying all in rows.
 

Concrete pipe

 Giant concrete pipe sitting in the yard of the city sewage plant.