Maxipes Fík's Machine

This is a device machine that Maxipes Fík, the cartoon character, drives in the story. As it goes all the little levers and wheels and gadgets move and shiver, no one knows what they are for. Domík was determined to have it right away. And I actually liked it that he liked this machine, it is like a symbol of an invention, with those little things on it. First I pretended I did not know what he was talking about but sooner my idea on how to kind of make the machine happen came to me and I just made it. It took two days. And the gadgets don't move. I am afraid this was the disappointing part. I am not there yet. Also, it is too small. But Elmo can sit in it and Domík pulls him around. When he is big, as he often says now, he will make his own machine.

He grinned at me nicely

We played a shopping game today. His shopping manners were hilarious. He screamed: Buy more! after each of my purchase in his toy and other stuff shop. He would hand me money that he had proudly ripped of his cash register, before I had time to give him mine. He also liked to wrap the stuffed animals that actually came to the shop as customers, he put them in plastic bags as if they were sold. He showed me the backroom of his shop with some "under counter" goodies. He painted his bank notes with strange symbols and also the numbers he screamed out over his cash register sounded very exotic.

He was happy that I played with him. He was nice all day and grinned at me nicely.

Book

Můj medvěd Flora, text and illustrations by Daisy Mrázková, 1st edition in 1973, re-edition 2007 by Baobab

Kids find a dirty old teddy bear in the snow, it is one of those that look like Winnie the Pooh in the  original book. They take it home, take care of it, wash it, fix it and play with it. I like that there is a whole page picture on every double page and a short and sort of poetic text. The story isn't anything but it doesn't matter. Actually, kids might like it. 

Robot

Edited: 

It is a robot, an amateur robot. Little antropomorphized. Looks like a fat man with a square head. Domík wanted a robot to cuddle with. I think the robot's expression makes up for everything.

September in the village

The kids went to see new born kittens. The kids are cute but not always. Their games almost always turn into a fight or a disaster of some kind. It is hard to watch it from distance. Sometimes I step in it and I don't know if I do it right.

Doll House

And also those tiny house shoes. And a straw and a cup. My kid watched me having fun. I felt like making a worm house that we saw in a picture. The worm changed in a butterfly and flew out when the puppets in a story lift up the box lid. Not ours. Ours is a 70s (again!) little doll and her house is furnished sort of utilitarian in neo-functionalist style. She likes mushroom picking.

1. Martinka
2. sleeping bag, ready-made, originally a wrist warmer for baby Domík
3. pillow, whipped up at place
4. bed, made from the cardboard that was in the shoe box the house is from
5. mushroom, modeling clay, painted
6. basket, laying abandoned under a bookshelf in our living room
7. table, ready-made, a cup for bigger dolls
8. flower, modeling clay, made after watching Mio Mao
9. carpet, 100% wool

And Dominik added his touch, urban graffiti on a facade. The house will not survive very long, I am afraid.

Summer pictures. The last one is my baby doll carriage from the 1970s. A miniature of real contemporary baby carriages. They are back in fashion - those wide ones with big wheels. Linda is laying inside. She is the only one left. Marcelka, Evička, Zdenička, Janička, Jůlinka, where did they end up, I wonder.

Blanket

While strolling through the Metropolitan museum in New York we came across a small exhibition by Anne Ryan and her textile collages. We paid just a little attention to it, my husband even said something like Her stuff is too nice, sorry, and I thought Yes and it is exactly what I could do just for myself, like some kind of an art therapeutic project. And later, along with my little guy playing, I played with scissors and paper and pretended I was making a blanket. Ryan's stuff is much better though, collages are hard job, we undervalued her. 

Fish

I am proud. Because this really looks like a fish. He didn't know it was a fish, only after I told him. He was proud. His doodling hasn't resembled much of anything, although it has been a nice confusion of lines but this is something new. He likes paints in tubes. He threw a fit that he wants those in tubes so his daddy had to go and dig out some old nice and professional gouache paints in a closing box. I had promised him to get him temperas after the weekend and he remembered it. So on Monday he took his new temperas out of a plastic tray that they sell them in, dumped his little cars from a suitcase and carefully assembled the paints in it. A day later I found them rearranged again in a plastic tray. I also want to play with tubes, cars and dolls.