Lots of words and only two pics

I had my weekly 'you're weird' talk with Harmien yesterday and it was all to do with my progress on Summer Basket:

As you can see, progress was slow and the reason for that is a bit pathetic, I will admit to that. You remember my early birthday gift, right? The lapstand? Well, the stand came with a small frame. Perfectly serviceable, but too small to contain Summer Basket, at least in an upright position. I was determined to use the frame because it was a birthday present and I'm that infantile it keeps the fabric nice and taut and I can use both hands whilst stitching. You know how obsessed I am with my stitches lying neat and flat and yet and at the same time plump and un-twisted and all that, right? Anyway, long story short, the only way to use the frame with Summer Basket was to turn it sideways. But then, when you stitch, all of a sudden all your stitches point in the wrong direction. Sooo, apart from the fact that I had to stitch sideways, I also had to stitch the other way around, which is, for me, the wrong way around. And what do you know? I did it without making too many mistakes and my stitches looked much neater in the end. This is the point in the conversation where Harmien said I was weird. Well, not in so many words this time, but she couldn't suppress a heartfelt 'Nou já!' Which translates, roughly, to 'do you really have nothing else to worry about and if not, what a wonderful life you do lead, you weird and silly woman.' Ah well.

SAL update day was supposed to have been yesterday, but I was too busy talking about my son to do any updating. Let me explain.

Pelle's been attending this medical daycare centre for nearly six months now, and it was time for the biannual talk about the progress he's made. You may remember that by the time he left his previous daycare centre, his developmental age was estimated at 13,5 months at the age of nearly five. The professionals there gave me to understand that there was little hope that Pelle would ever be able to attend school or make a whole lot of improvement overall, while I myself had always had the feeling that there was something that was holding him back, that was preventing him from coming into his own. Discouraged as I was to have any hopes, let alone high hopes, I watched his progress, all the while warning myself not to become too enthused about what I saw.
Now, nearly six months later, everybody is looking at this little boy with something I can only describe as wonderment, because not only is he much happier, he is also speeding ahead in his development, as if he's making up for lost time. His developmental age is now estimated at 27 months. Now I'm not a mathematician, but that's a lot. That's 13,5 months crammed into five months. This is fantastic news, of course, but the main thing is that Pelle is so freaking happy with it. He's finally learning to express himself, to share everything that he's been forced to keep to himself for so long. And being the chatterbox that he is, you can imagine his relief and glee :o) Nobody knows what the future will bring, of course, but just so you know: all of a sudden my future has become a heck of a lot sunnier.

There is a whole lot more I want to write about, but that will have to wait till my next post, which will be up on Monday. My brother and I went for a walk in the woods today and we took some pictures and had a very very good time. He called me weird too, but I will explain about that on Monday. And I have stitchy news and stitchy pics to share, so stay tuned.

Thanks for all of your kind and wonderful comments on my Sense and Sensibility finish and thank you, especially, for being around, for reading my blog, for leaving comments, and for sending good vibes our way every time I ask for them. As you can see, they really do help!!!

Yours gleefully,
Annemarie.