ella is coloring some alphabet pages:
oh, can't you see her? let me show you a different angle:
this is the book club, safely tucked behind the couch. it is just the right size for one girl and her mother.
this basket holds her chosen reading selections for the week. the lantern is for when it is dark.
this is her "cubby" area:
on the lower shelf are a container of magnet letters, numbers, etc, and a baking pan to use them with. on the back of the baking pan we glued some felt which she can use to stick felt shapes to make pictures or patterns. we take this along with us when we go on road trips, and at home ella uses the baking pan for a lap tray.
on the upper shelf she keeps her cubby box with crayons and markers, her journals, and her letter kit. it also holds her favorite part of the book club, her white noise machine. i got this when she was an infant and we have used it in my office, in the costume shop, and now in the book club. ella says it makes the club so peaceful.
"white noise" is sort of a misnomer, because it also plays what ella calls "habitat sounds"--spring rain, heartbeats, summer nights--and her favorite and mine, ocean waves. this is what it sounds like when ella is in the book club:
we also have a nature table back here that holds ella's collection of rocks and shells, plus any miscellaneous extras she might like to add ("look what i found, mama! this is the first feather for our feather collection."). the table is actually a trunk that rudi's grandfather (or was it great-grandfather?) made as a wedding gift for his bride. the stuff on the window sill is whatever ella wants to display, right now it is a ukelele, a wooden santa with a paper chain necklace, an angel with broken wings, an eagle plaque, and a basket for the kitties to nap in.
and to go with the ocean waves, ella redecorated the christmas village (did i forget to tell you? we leave our christmas stuff up all year round). the village has relocated to the beach, which i myself would happily do too if we could pick up our house and move it as easily.
