Picking up The Dormouse from preschool yesterday, I spied her and some of the other kids gathered around a table completely engrossed in a project. Having a couple of minutes to spare, I pulled up a tiny chair and sat down next to them with my knees touching my chin to watch what they were doing. The activity was some kind of set of interlocking blocks (similar to these or these). Each child was intently focused on making something different out of the blocks.

One of the kid had stuck together a whole series of long, thin blocks in alternating colors and said, "I'm making a sword."

Another had put together an archway (or at least the closest thing to an archway that you can create with square and rectangle blocks) and informed me, "I'm making a bridge for cars to drive over."

"Mine is a snake, ssssss.... sssssss..." another informed me.

Yet another had some amorphous collection of different colors and sizes put together like an amoeba that kept changing shape. "This is Donatello - he's a Ninja Turtle - Yee Haw!" he beamed as the ahem, 'turtle' took a swipe at me with his ninja sword.

Looking over at The Dormouse, her structure was composed entirely of yellow square pieces of the same size, which she had connected next to one another in a large, thin sheet. "What are you making honey?" I asked.

"A floor."