Scribble-Scrabble and Mega baby blankets

Pizza (who is 4) is not fond of drawing. I attribute this to a perfectionistic streak in his personality. He did not walk until he was darn sure he wouldn't fall. Same with potty training. He does not like to draw because he can't make it look like he wants it to look, and no amount of cajoling from me is going to change that. But since "All" kids draw ( look it up), I try to build up his confidence and work with him.

So we go to a princess birthday party this weekend for one of his classmates, and they have a craft table, and for the boys there are littlewooden pirate ships with tiny markers to color. Because there wasn't much for Pizza to do while the little girls got make-up (yeah, don't even get me started on that!), I encouraged him to work on his. He does this:

Another mother observing this says to him. "Why don't you color that? That's only scribble." To which Pizza most apolegetically replies " I only know how to scribble-scrabble. I can't color." and immediately loses all interest in what he is doing. Needless to saw I felt awful for the little man, and shot the women a dirty look, and told him his work what fine, but to no avail.

Arghhh.... It has prompted me to re-examine what to do with Pizza. He needs confidence in his ability. I'm pretty sure this is not a fine motor issue, because he is quite good with other things that involve his hands and fingers. He can do buttons and zippers, and plays with lego, and is good a tracing letters with his fingers. But right now I'm scared to make him draw, so I decided another type of craft which will work with fine motor, rather then drawing per se would be good for him. Something he can display and feel good about. So we are working with a sign for his bedroom door. I drew his name while he watched, and applied glue, and I let him set to work with the beans. He even did a pattern! He came up with that idea all on his own. We got through S last night, and we will work on it for small amounts of time until he finishes. Then I will have him practice tracing his letters, and maybe try to coax him into fingerpaitning his name. If he does that maybe, maybe I will ask him to write his name with a crayon.....

On my crafty end I set up my sewing spot( why can't I ever remeber how to thread the bobbin on my machine!), and managed to sew a mega swaddling, baby blanket for Yogurt, who is quite long for his age. It's a bit overkill, but it has to do with making me feel like I'm doing something to address the sleeping issue, and less to do with the actual reality that it won't make a bit of difference.

I made progress on the BSJ, but I don't like the way the increases are looking, and haven't decided whether to rip out that section and try for the third time or just live with it. First I tried M1, but I didn't like it. Then I tried a bar increase, and that's better, but I think there must be another way to increase in garter stitch.

Hope you creating is going well, and sorry about the tangent on my son's craft. That women's careless comment has really been on my mind.

frontier dreams