What do you mean, no imagination?!

Since August a lady has been coming here from the Autism team of Northern Netherlands to give Ilianna "playing- therapy". Children with autism have problems with developing their imaginations, but if you look at these pictures that we took around Christmas time, you can say that Ilianna has no problem in that area. Here she is doing Piglet and Elvis' hair:

Whenever I do Ilianna's hair, she sits on a stool in front of me, just like P & E are doing here. The lady who gave the Playing therapy said that it is unclear whether Ilianna is using her imagination, or if she is just copying things that we do. Have a look at this next picture, where Ilianna is putting shoes on Elvis and Piglet:

And it's not just those two who get all the attention:

And here is the funniest story of them all. One day we were sitting here and we asked if Ilianna needed a clean diaper. She answered no, but a few minutes later she grabbed a diaper, and the changing pad and went over to the couch. She then grabbed Piglet, and proceeded to giver him a clean diaper. It was pretty funny to see! She has an apron on, because I also had one on.

First she wiped his bum:

Then she attempted to put the diaper on:

We gave her a hand, and this was the end result:

So I come to the following conclusion: What do you mean, no imagination???!!!!!

A short weekend holiday and a first day of school

It's been very busy around here since my last blog. Last friday we left for a long weekend away. A 3 hour drive and we were in the northern part of Limburg, the most southern province of Holland, near Venlo. We stayed at a Landal Green Park for 3 nights. Check out http://www.landal.nl/, go to park info, then click on the map of the Netherlands. Limburg is the province on the bottom right, click on that, and then on De Lommerbergen, then you can see the park we stayed in.

Here is a picture of the house we stayed in. It doesn't look much from the outside, but inside it was pretty nice:

In the park plaza there was a swimming pool;

An indoor playzone;

and a few different restaurants and stores. We went out for dinner in one of the restaurants on saturday evening. Ilianna didn't sit down for very long, only to eat her dinner, and the rest of the time she was outside of the restaurant, exploring and looking at the fish in the pond.

We weren't just with the three of us. Jan's parents, his brother, Sjouke and Sjouke's girlfriend, Janneke were also along.

Ilianna enjoyed everyone's company, and found it quite "gezellig". It was a nice weekend.

Yesterday I babysat again. It was good to see the three girls again after more than 2 weeks.

Today was Ilianna's first day at her new school. Exciting for all of us! I brought her there at 10 this morning, stayed until 11, and picked her up again at 1PM. She seemed to like it for the time she was there, and made contact with some of the children in her group and one of her leaders. This is the front of her school.

There is an area in the back where the kids can play outside;

By the way that she's running in this next picture, it looks like she didn't have a very good time and can't wait to get away from there, but from what I could tell, she had a good time.

Reflections and resolutions

New Years is the time to reflect on the year past, and to look on to the future and the new year ahead. 2007 in the Slagman house was pretty interesting. Near the end of 2006 we had our suspicions that things were not as they should be with Ilianna, and in 2007 we heard that she has characteristics of autism. Since the beginning of the year we have been concentrating on helping her development, mentally, socially and physically, and she has, especially in the latter part of the year, really flourished. In a week she'll be starting at a "special daycare/school", that specializes in children with developmental disabilities. She'll be going 3 days a week, which will be an adjustment for all of us!

The beginning of 2007 started out with a big trip, as Ilianna and I flew across the ocean to visit my parents.
We were able to see a lot of family, including my brother, Dave, who was there for the same purpose as us, my Dad's 65th birthday. A few weeks after we were home in Friesland, Dave and his friend, Paul, came and spent a weekend with us.


March was a big milestone for Ilianna, when she went to pre-school for the first time. It became very quickly clear that Ilianna really liked it there.

We had a quiet spring, with some really nice weather, and we took our first visit to the zoo with Ilianna. It was a great day, and Ilianna really responded well to all of the animals, a real success!


At the end of May we had a really rainy day. That day just happened to be the day of the fietsen-elfstedentocht, or the bike-11 city tour, a 240 kilometer bike tour, through Friesland. Jan biked it with 7 other members of the brassband he plays in. The 8 bikers started at 5:30 AM and when at 9:30 PM they came into the finish, 6 of them were left. Jan says that out of the 4 times he's now biked the tour, this was the worst, and the hardest, mainly because of the constant rain, and he says that he'll never bike it again.
The beautiful weather that we had up until the beginning of July was followed by a very cool, wet and depressing summer and fall. It did however give us a chance to really work on Ilianna's new room. She moved in in August, and adjusted well. Boy she looked small in that great big bed!
August 27 was a great day, because my Mom arrived in Holland. She stayed for 4 weeks and during that time we celebrated two birthdays, mine and Ilianna's, saw a Canadian choir perform, took a trip to the petting zoo/playground with Ilianna's class, visited and spent time with family, went to an indoor playground, babysat, and just had lots of fun with each other.

In November Jan turned 29, and at the end of the month we welcomed Sinterklaas back into town.
Ilianna enjoyed everything that went along with Sinterklaas; the songs, the presents and setting up her shoe in the evenings and then finding something in it in the morning. We had a very quiet Christmas and Ilianna liked all of the presents she got from us, oops, I mean Santa!


Now that 2008 has begun, and we've reflected on 2007, traditions call on us to make resolutions. I know that in the new year, as in 2007, we will be concentrating on helping Ilianna in her development. I'll be starting a new challenge as part-time leader of the gospelchoir I sing in, and will be working on getting better is shape, something I've been working on since this summer, and doing quite well in. I don't know what Jan's resolutions are, but they are probably close to mine. He'll be starting with a new sales region for work, and I think he'll be working pretty hard again this year. This vacation he's been working on insulating and fixing up our attic, so he'll have a private place to work from home.

We hope it'll be a good year, for us, and for all of you!

Âld en Nij, WWIII and a new car for Crystal

Well, we survived! Christmas is over, and more importantly, Âld en Nij, literally translated as Old and New, otherwise known as New Year's Eve, is over!! Over here in Holland, fireworks or firecrackers are sold to the general public, and official laws indicate that you can shoot them off from 10AM on December 31, until 2AM January 1. All day yesterday we heard a pop here, a snap there, and the occasional "BOOM!" (those would be the illegal fireworks that people pick up across the border in Germany). What we also hear during the day is "carbit sjitten", where people put some carbit, a white, chalky stone in a metal milk can, add water, which releases a gas, then put the lid on the can. There is a hole in the bottom, which they hold shut while shaking the can, then the put it on the ground so the can is diagonally facing an open field, put a flame up to the hole, and the lid flies off. This makes a loud noise, which can be heard kilometers in the distance. Here is a picture from the internet:

So, lots of fun. Once it's dark, the fireworks really start, mostly by big groups that have bought some quality fireworks. A lot of families also shoot some off, before their kids go to bed. At midnight the fun really starts, (I'm being sarcastic) when everyone goes outside, wishes their neighbours happy new year, and then start with the fireworks that they haven't shot off yet. Like I mentioned in the title of this blog, it really sounds like World War III, so much noise! They have some things called Duizend Klappers, or thousand bangs, which is literally a thousand big bangs and pops. Here is a picture of someone lighting one:

We live in a housing complex that face other houses, so the bang really reverberate against the houses, which makes it really loud. In all this noise we are always anxious about how Ilianna is doing. Well, I can tell you, a train could have come through her room last night, and it would have made less noise than all the noise outside, but she did not wake up!! We were really amazed, and still are!

Here is a picture of what the town look like on New Years morning:

Here is a small fact. 16 million people live in Holland. Many of those are senior citizens, and a good majority is children. Holland spent 60 MILLION EUROS on fireworks this year, 5 million more than last year, and that does not include the illegal stuff that was brought across the border!

Well, since today I can drive Jan's lease car from his work. We have arranged that we can drive it for private use, so we went for a drive this morning. It took a bit of getting used to, since it's bigger, and a diesel, where as I drive a car on gas/petrol. It also have cruise control, which I've never used, so that was fun!

Well, to all of you out there, my family and friends, the three of us wish you much joy, health, prosperity, and pretty much all of the best in 2008.