Playing with my boy

Sorry for not writing so long. I’m busy playing with Pelle, organizing the program and doing promotion work for the Dutch foundation who introduced Son-Rise here in Holland. And I’m still volunteering for the Rent-a-Toy organization in our village and doing a lot for Pelle’s school (organizing a fund-raise for children in Africa, serving drinks tomorrow when they have their sports day etc.). I’m busy and happy.
If you want to see me play with Pelle, take a look at my Dutch blog, here. Mark recorded the start of our session, last Friday. Of course there’s a lot of talking going on in Dutch, but maybe you’d like to see our dynamics. Pelle starts by singing songs from a little booklet and asks me several times what the next song is. As I’m not allowed to sing, I show it to him (the song about a paper hat). You can also see me very briefly talking to Mark, who discovers that we only have 5 minutes of tape left in our Handycam. I tell him that that’s probably enough.

I had to cut the recordings in 3 pieces, because I’m not able to upload more than 100 MB on Blogger, but it’s all from one take. The next two pieces are here and here and you can see us while Pelle takes an attention in his mill and I tease him a bit while blowing and touching the ‘wieken’ (don’t know the English word). Next we play with his wooden blocks until he starts talking about swimming lessons and not daring to jump into the water. I contradict him by telling him he did just fine, the other day and showing him the jump he made.
We then start pretending we’re in the swimming pool, but unfortunately, that’s not on film.

I try to make as many eye-contact as I can, inviting him to look at me verbal (by asking) and non-verbal. I also try to express myself in a fun way. You can see how he reacts.
Our goals for the moment are to learn him how to do pretend-play and role-play and to invite him to draw (no example there). And to stimulate him to physically cross his arms, because he needs that to learn to write, next year.

If you like to see how he has progressed, I’d invite you to look at this film, which was shut in August last year. There’s so much more contact, flexibility and sharing now. And there still is so much fun. I love doing this and being with him.

Pelle is doing just fine

In front of the mirror.

Finally, I am writing this post about Pelle and his progress. Sorry it took so long. There are a couple of reasons for that, one of which is that I started to write in Dutch about the SonRise program. And I love doing that. I have a mission, being to popularize the Dutch version of SonRise. But I also feel like a true writer, who loves making little stories of each post. But it takes time. And as the program itself is growing it also takes more time to organize. We now have two people coming over every week, Christa and Lila. Christa is a student doing part of her apprenticeship here at our home and Lila I’ve hired myself. I give them feedback, raise funds to pay for Lila, talk to school about SonRise and what we do at home (they are very interested, because Pelle’s progressing so much) and next week we have our first meeting with everyone who is involved. Sometimes it feels like I have another career, similar to what I’ve done as a teacher and trainer, but also as a manager. And it’s benefiting Pelle so well.
Our goals for this moment are to learn him how to play. And it’s paying of very well. He is now able to do some pretend play, role-playing and a little game. We played a bit of memory the other day (16 cards), and that was a first. He’s stretching his imagination. He has a new pet, a tiger, which I once bought years ago and was totally neglected until a few weeks ago. They now sleep together and Pelle’s starting to fantasize about Tiger being ill and having a fever. He’s starting to interact with his classmates. He’s starting to read and taking up his interest in books again. He’s not asking the same questions over and over again anymore but in stead is being more active with his trains, Loco (a game used at school to stimulate cognitive development), puzzles and skeelers. He’s not a normal 5-years old, and maybe he never will be normal. I really don’t mind. He’s my very special kid. And he’s able to learn so much. I’m so proud of him.

Robot T

Dear people,
If only I had more time, I would write more often. For now, I just leave you with some pictures of a T-shirt I sewed this week. I loved making it and intend to upgrade the pattern one size and also make a velours sweater, since Pelle loves wearing those in spring.

Robot T a photo by oddwise on Flickr.

I love the way this turned out. When I saw the pattern in the Ottobre magazine, I knew I had just the right fabric for it.
I was a bit worried that the sleeves would be too wide under the armpits, but the fit is just fine for my 5-years old boy.

Sleeve

Sleeve a photo by oddwise on Flickr.

For my little wizard

For my little wizard
Originally uploaded by oddwise

To stimulate pretend-play for Pelle, I sewed him a wizard's cloak. I used pattern # 30 of the 4/2004 issue of Ottobre and added a collar with velcro (the original pattern calls for a satin biasbinding to use for closing, but my boy can't do laces yet, so I though this would be a better solution).
It's made from a cheap black kind of velour and a golden lining. I appliqued the stars with the fabric of the lining and added a fancy trim on the collar.

For my little wizard
Originally uploaded by oddwise

Cozy Jacket and pants.

I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit, since I have been so busy with my new Dutch one (about the Dutch version of SonRise) but I haven’t stopped sewing. Those of you who know me from the Ottobre Flickr group are in for a repeat, since I copy the lines I wrote there for this blog. A girl can only write so much.
Here's a jacket I made for Pelle, in size 110.









Close-up of the fabric.

I made a few minor alterations to the pattern (Ottobre, # 28, 1/2006), changed the pockets and adjusted the lining, with help of my sewing teacher. As I thought a kind of cuff would be nice, I lengthened the arms and curled them up. I also wanted buttons, so I made the front a little broader to accommodate for them (the original calls for snaps). It’s made from a kind of light patchwork wool blend. The lining is also light and soft, from a large stash donated to me by a colleague from the rent-a-toy organization where I volunteer. I used a babyrib for the trims.
I’m very pleased with the result and with the ease I sewed it.

I also sewed Pelle a snowpant. It's very basic. He loved the idea that it can get wet, and muddy and spoiled. And that it's warm.




I made it using the most basic trouserpattern I could find, the Taku of spring 2009. I did not add any pockets. The outside is from blue taslan, the inside from fleece. The waist is made from a strip of corduroy.

I'm planning to slim down this blog, if you know what I mean. I keep on posting about my sewing, and show you my stuff whenever it's finished. And am planning to post an update on Pelle's development every month. But that's it, for some time at least.
More on my boy and how he's doing (GREAT!), very soon.

Being a kind of toad-stool

We had a wonderful playroom session today. I bought some face paint, a couple of weeks ago, after Pelle saw one of his teachers dressed up like a toadstool, her face red with white spots.
Pelle was deeply impressed and wanted to look like her, too. Being busy painting each others face looked a great way to me to start studying our faces more carefully. Important for Pelle, who has a rather flat expression and might have trouble reading what other people say nonverbally.
Today we were going to visit gran, who has a broken ankle and needed some groceries. Before that, I wanted to play with Pelle in his playroom. Where he said he would like to use the facepaint again. As you can see, he did a great job turning me into ….. something red. It felt so good watching him carefully stroking my face with a brush, and being concentrated for so long. He even talked to my nose. But then the best part had yet to come. After taken pictures he said to me: “Mum, do you know why I painted you? Because I think gran would find it funny”. So here you saw me, later in the day, biking to gran with my red mask on, happy as can be. Because my boy contributed a feeling to my mum. A spark of empathy. He lit a fire of joy in me.