The give and take

Living day to day with a DSI kid, abnormal things become normal. It's when I'm with other kids firstborn's age that I begin to see where he is different. Last night at Webelos was just such an experience.

The boys were making leather slides for their neckerchiefs. I think that's what they call them, though it probably isn't the proper manly name.

The slides contained pre-punched holes along each long side. The boys were to lace a leather strip through the holes in a cross over pattern. This they did easily because the holes were large enough. The problem came when they had to restring the last two holes to secure the lacing. The soft leather lacing fit tightly into the holes because a lace already passe through them. So I offered to help out with my trusty bead crochet needle.

I sat down with the first three boys. Each would sit across the table from me and pull on the lace already occupying the hole while I used my needle to push the end of the other lace through the hole. This would tighten the lace that was in the hole opening the hole to a larger size and thinning out the lace that was in the hole a bit. Once I got the end through, the boy would pull it the rest of the way and we would work on the other lace. Each time the boy sitting across from me would pull the lace firmly enough to open the hole a bit but not hard enough to pull the whole aparatus out of my hand. It took them seconds to find the right tension, and they never actually pulled the item out of my hand. Though sometimes they would lose interest, and I would have to remind them to pull.

Then Firstborn sat across from me. I explained the process and handed him a lace to pull. First, he seemed to not pull at all. I asked him to pull a bit harder and he pulled the slider out of my hand. I looked up thinking he was goofing off. He looked surprised at this strength. I took a deep breath and explained that he needed to pull it tight, but not out of my hand. It took him a few minutes of concentration before he could get the tension right. Even then, I had to keep reminding him.

Interesting experience.

Then he asked me how to whistle on the way home.