Jake the Reindeer

Merry Christmas!!! Sorry for the delay. I'll wish you all a Happy New Year now, before I miss yet another holiday.

I'm going to take you back to the 19th of December, when Jake made his performance debut in Calgary as "Jacob {said in a French accent} the reindeer". Grandma was out here for a visit and we all packed ourselves out to head over to Jake's school for the Kindergarten Christmas Concert. As I feared, Jacob's early arrival meant that we were going to have a difficult time keeping Owen and Will in order until the show started. The long walk through the school halls into the gymnasium was pure torture for Will when he saw the many tables in the halls, lined with the trays of goodies that parents brought in for the reception afterwards. It appeared that I'm not the only mom who only had time to run out and purchase her 'baked' good, because Will found at least 5 tempting, yellow Timbit boxes.

While all of the families waited in the gym for the stars to arrive, Owen and Will joined the kids in the back of the seating area, to basically run crazy and see who could shriek the loudest. They had such a good time. It's amazing how Owen comes alive when he's in a room full of people. There are definitely certain things that can trigger a meltdown for him when he's in certain overcrowded areas, but there is also a real appeal for him in crowds. He loves to hide behind people's legs and is the master of hide 'n seek. NOT a safe feeling for Mom and Dad, I assure you. Never had it been more apparent than that evening, that we need to work a program into Owen's behaviour therapy, to teach him not to grab strangers by the legs. Because for his height, it's not the legs that he's grabbing, if you get my meaning. I saw at least 3 men turn bright purple either in awkward embarrassment or in pain (?) when Owen grabbed for them. It might have been something that people would tolerate when he was younger, but as he's getting older, it is obviously not something that is very socially acceptable. Owen also managed to work his way into at least 3 family portraits that night and none of those 3 included any of his own family. There was one point at the end of the end of the evening where I looked up from the back of the gym, to see a family of 10 posing on stage for a family portrait, and there sat Owen right smack dab in the middle of them all, grinning from ear to ear. Fortunately for us, the family seemed to enjoy the fact that they had an interesting conversation piece to share once their pictures were developed.

When 6:30 rolled around and the show was about to start, it was nearly impossible to calm the boys back down to sit nicely through the performance. Surprisingly, it was Owen who couldn't sit still. Will actually really enjoyed hearing the singing and we heard him humming along with some of the songs he knew.

Jake looked absolutely adorable when he came out. It's when you see him amongst all of his little friends from school that you remember how young he really is. He was definitely nervous, but he stood a lot more confident than I thought he would. Jacob's a born performer.

I did my best with the camera, but there were a lot of big heads in front of me. Jake's friends were Carson to his right and Sammy to his left. Jacob's best friend, Joshua, unfortunately can not be seen in the video.

So Jake's performance was stellar and he made his family very proud. It's amazing how quickly he has picked up French. He even does a great job of mumbling through words he doesn't know in a French accent so the average English-speaking person doesn't hear the difference. We've got a future Elvis on our hands! (said entirely for his Granny's benefit).

flashback - visit with farmers! & a walk in the park

As usual, I'm feeling guilty because there is so much that I haven't posted on here that I wanted to. Let's go back to the first weekend of December... shall we?

For all of the teasing we do to Jenny and Ian about being farmers, we were so happy that their farm life is what brought them out to see us. Ian is an active member of the Canadian Blonde d'Aquitaine Association and they held an annual meeting (I think) in Manitoba a few weeks back. I just so happened to have a photo of Ian with his fellow board members right here to show you all!:

Jenny and Isabella went along for the ride and Isabella proved to be an angel for the whole trip, despite their cancelled flight and long delays from Winnipeg to Calgary. The arrived late Friday night and we were SO HAPPY to have our friends with us once again. This short time together reminded me that it had been years since we have had the opportunity to just hang out together. Without kids to run home to (if at a visit at the farm) or a scheduled something to run off to. It was really nice. We're not sure if Jen & Ian felt that it was that relaxing with all of the chaos and noise that lives in our household, but we more than enjoyed their visit.

I was so pleased to see that Owen and Jake were so into baby Bella. Owen, who never ventures into our bedrooms, would open the door on his own to creep in and watch Bella in her playpen, or to simply hang out alongside her. It was really nice to see that he even had an awareness of her. Jake turned out to be a perfect little babysitter.

He had been anticipating her visit and had even told his friends that he would be "babysitting" his new little cousin, but that he wouldn't change any diapers. The two of them turned out to be great friends and we witnessed a lot of smiles and giggles that were entirely the result of Jake's entertaining her.

We really didn't do a heck of a lot to entertain our visitors, I'm embarrassed to admit. We were feeling far too lazy and having to work around Bella's sleeping schedule was a good excuse to stay close to home. Ian was only able to stay for the weekend, but we did manage to fit in a walk into the Park. I was a total grump that day and very short-tempered (sorry guys!).. I'll blame it on the fact that I didn't want Ian to leave?? But my mood was not made any better by Jonathan's slip-ups. We won't talk about his wonderful example of fearlessness at the river and tempting fate with thin ice. But we will talk about his run-in with the Law.

The Law came in the form of a big, beefy and butchy woman who wore her park ranger outfit like it was an army sergeant's uniform. Jonathan thought it wouldn't be a big deal to let Matilda off her leash (first time we've done it ever.. on a Sunday with an empty park). Matilda is too fat and lazy to run off and she's too afraid to get left behind either, but on this particular walk she ventured in a different direction from us because her stubby little legs sunk too deep in the path of snow that we were walking on. So on she trotted all by her lonesome, while we yelled to her to come back, in perfect display before Bertha the Park Ranger. While 'Bertha' stood waiting for Jonathan to walk to her, Jenny tried to appease her by saying "I'm sure that they didn't know the rules in here. They just moved here from Ontario". Bertha replied in a very dramatic voice, according to Jenny: "that's no excuse for BREAKING THE LAW!". Fortunately for us, she let Jonathan off with a verbal warning and the reminder that the laws are created to protect the wildlife. We wouldn't want little ole Matilda to eat a deer or anything. Forget the fact that Bertha ignored the couple walking their giant german shepard behind us that ran off-leash miles ahead of its owners. Anyways.. I have nothing to complain about. No fine. UNTIL NEXT TIME..

Owen enjoys the life of luxury

Will stops every couple of steps to eat snow

the Boys were reunited at last

Once Ian left on Sunday evening, Jenny stayed on with Bella for a few more days. It was so great having them here with us. We gave Jake a couple of days off from school (I hope we didn't destroy his Kindergarten year!) so that we could take the girls into the mountains with us. Monday we went in to Bragg Creek. Unfortunately there wasn't much to see since most of its stores were closed. Tuesday we took a trip into Banff and Isabella got to experience her first gondola ride up a mountain.

Needless to say that the house felt very empty and quiet when Jenny and Bella left us on Wednesday. We can't wait to have them back!

We Love Chicken Noodle Soup!

Correction: it's not Knorr's. It's even better...

Tobogganing & Runaway Willies

We had a blast this past Sunday. One of the great things about Calgary, is that its neighbourhoods all seem to make a real effort to create a 'community' atmosphere that really promotes family involvement, outdoor physical activity, respect for nature, etc. Nearly every community or neighbourhood centers around a community centre, has its own newsletter, and its own council. We are fortunate to have a community centre that has a weight room for all the residents, a playschool, gyms, etc. We also have a tennis court (I think), that in the winter converts to an outdoor shinny rink.

We are even luckier because we live next door to Sally & Greg. They have a BEAUTIFUL neighbourhood park (hence the community name of Parkland). There is an awesome tobogganing hill, shinny rink, frisbee golf course, regular skating rink and even a path that circles the entire area, through the twinkling-lit trees with music in the overhead speakers, that people can skate around on. We were invited by Sally to use their park so that we could go sledding and what fun the boys had!

Owen couldn't wait for his turn to go down.

It sure wasn't fun for Dad or Diane when they had to carry Owen back up! - on a related note.. we are actively looking into seeking some physical therapy for Owen to work on building his muscle tone and helping him with his walking. He continues to trip every 10 steps or so and we call him the "floppy man" because his joints are so loose. It was never as much as a challenge as it is now, because he is filled with a lot of energy and wants to run and be active, but his little body fails him and he falls so frequently. This has made walks as a family nearly impossible unless we have the wagon, because he just can't keep up. Another exciting thing to note however, is that our specialised services include a goal that will teach both Owen and Will to ride a two-wheeler bike with training wheels by June 2007! This will make a HUGE impact on what we can do as a family together if we can go bike riding by this summer. Can't wait! We'll keep you posted on how that goes...

Don't let our bundled clothes fool you. We were dressed smart, but our weather out here this past week has been very comfortable. We still have 'old' snow on the ground from the cold snap a few weeks back, but the temps have just been hovering between -5 and plus 5 for the past week.

Jake was the bravest of the bunch and the second we arrived at the hill, off he went by himself. No scrapes or bruises!






Okay, I spoke too soon. No scrapes or bruises for JAKE. This is Will BEFORE he went down the hill with Diane. Unfortunately, Will ended up falling off the sled and proceeded to slide down the rest of the way on his face. He had a pretty bad nosebleed and while we were attending to it (with only his scarf to mop it up), we didn't realize that the rest of his face was raw with scrapes. Because we thought it was just blood from his nose and because Will doesn't have the words to tell us, we rubbed the poor little muppet's face to clean it not realizing we were rubbing an ice-burn!!! Can you say "terrible mother"?

this picture doesn't show how bad his face really looks, but let's just say we'll have a story to tell when the Christmas photos come out!

Diane and her boys. We miss her already!!!



Easily the funniest part of our day was when Will thought he had a chance to make a getaway. We knew the area was fenced in, so we let him think he could get away with it. We're not sure where he thought he was going...

Holiday Train's in Town!

One year ago, Jake, Jonathan and I stood on Old Scugog Rd., waiting for the CP Holiday Train to roll in with Nonna, Pop and Grandma. We were so excited at the prospect of having a new holiday tradition that we could have for all the years to come.

We were nestled in to the overflowing crowd, freezing cold but happy that we were surrounded by so many familiar faces from our town. Mr. & Mrs. Yellowlees (Jake's Sunday School teacher) were right behind us, Corey, Leanne and Emma were nearby and lots of people from St. Paul's United were waving to us here and there. It was an amazing night. The train pulled up with all the lights twinkling, Santa waved from a coach window. The boxcar doors opened up and a handful of Canadian performers sang Christmas carols with all of us in the crowd singing along. It really was a special night and we thought that we would be standing with the same people the following year to celebrate Christmas 2006 in the same magical way.



Fast forward one year to 2006 and Jake, Diane and I were lucky enough to discover that the same train makes a stop in Calgary. We had decided that the twins would take a pass on this event, as there is a lot of standing around and waiting.. not their strong points. The train pulled up and it was just as beautiful as the year before. Lisa Brokop and Wide Mouth Mason performed a few songs and it was a pretty good show.

It must be said that while I was standing there (listening to Diane compare how much better our home-town is compared to Calgary), though I tried to appreciate the experience of the show and the excitement of all the kids enjoying the performance, I couldn't help but feel the absence of my family back home and wished they could be there to enjoy the train with us. I know we can't keep comparing our new lives to what we had before, back home. There's no point. This is our new home and its benefits outweigh those in Ontario. But I'd be lying if I said that last night I preferred standing at a Calgary train track, instead of Bowmanville's.

It sure helps to know that Bowmanville doesn't even get to see the Holiday Train this year, as it made its stops elsewhere along the route. Na-na-na-nah-na-na. I guess living in the big city has its advantages.

Erin Loves Soup!

We were so excited to hear that our 'cousin' Erin was selected to appear on a label of the Knorr's soup package! Seeing her picture, it's no wonder why she was chosen! Mom Kathy, Dad Dan and grandparents Elio & Rena are very obviously proud.

Gingerbread and Sugar Overload

Sunday was another fun day. Diane re-joined us out here on Sunday. I drove with Owen and Jake to the airport to pick her up and we were so excited! Owen gave her the sideways look out of the corner of the eye while grinning at her, so there is no doubt that he remembers one of his favourite girlfriends. Diane has secured a wonderful new job as a CDA (Communication Disorders Assistant) that starts in January, so while she had the free time, she chose to come out for another visit with her favourite family! The irony is that this is the same girl, who before we moved, insisted that she wouldn't frivolously fly out here more than once a year, if not less. Please note that this is Diane's THIRD trip out here since we moved and I didn't even have to beg her this time!!! We're happy to have her here anytime and I'm just glad she believes that.

We were disappointed that our plans fell through to spend the day with Lisa's family to decorate gingerbread. We decided to make other plans with Sally & Greg and once the plans were made, Lisa called to say it was back on again. :( Unfortunately, we had to decline the offer and went on with our alternative plans. It was a lovely day, if you don't count the couple of screw-ups that we had. Aunt Sally, Diane and Jake created a beautiful gingerbread house (from a kit, of course). Jake probably ate at least a quarter of the candy and icing.



Owen surprised us by participating as well. You can tell by the look on his face that he wasn't thrilled to touch it, but he fearlessly got his hands dirty anyway. This overcoming his aversion to all things food-related is all a credit to his program and his therapists' hard work.


Will's participation involved removing all of Jake's carefully placed candies and eating them all up. Suffice it to say that bedtime Monday night was VERY late after the sugar high that the two boys were suffering through.

On a serious note, we are observing a pretty significant decrease in attention and focus, but with an increase in stimming on the part of Will. We're starting to wonder if there is a link between this and a possible reaction to red food dye/colouring. I need to remember to look it up online and see if this is a possibility. Will does not have access to a lot (any) candy, but it is being used as a reinforcer in his program (smarties and m&m's). After eating some red candies on this day, we noticed a total change in his personality. It's something worth looking into. Email me if any of you have heard about the effects of this dye?

The Masterpiece

Later in the day, we put up our new Charlie Brown tree. After Jonathan's two hour fruitless search for our missing Xmas Tree stand (which we later found out is still in our old garage in Bowmanville), we finally figured out a way to keep it standing. We are quite proud of our pathetic little tree and for those who can't stand looking at it (for the anal decorators who need every decoration positioned in symmetry with perfectly strewn lights on an eye-pleasing, traditionally shaped tree).. we have another tree in our front bay window. Well, it used to be pretty to look at until Owen removed (and hoarded) every single round shaped ball and now there are only decorations on top above his reach.

We capped off the night with a nice dinner shared with Sally and Greg. It's so nice to have a 'family' out here to share these things with. We hope you are all enjoying your holiday preparations as much as we are!

Hey Look! It's Auntie Boom!

oh! Pitiful Tree! oh! Pitiful Tree!

Our poor Christmas Tree looks like it's perfect for Charlie Brown. We love it though.. I told Jake that our family saved it because no one else would have wanted it and we gave it the perfect home. It was decorated by Jake with a bit of help from Owen and Will. Owen still has that annoying habit of yanking his favourite ornaments off of it and yesterday he managed to topple it over. That makes our decision to buy this stumpy little tree an even better idea.

sleigh rides with Santa in Bragg Creek

I have a lot from recent months to still update everyone on, but I thought I'd try to get current and give you something recent.



This past Saturday was a great day. We bundled up the kids and went for a beautiful drive out of Calgary to the little village of Bragg Creek. It's a gorgeous little place with some cute little shops and this particular weekend they had their Christmas festival going on at their local Community Center. We didn't have the energy to tackle the craft sale, but we managed to buy a real Christmas Tree just for the kids to decorate (pics to come!). Afterwards, we caught a ride with Santa on a horse-drawn wagon ride that went through town. It was a lot of fun.

Jake-trying to pose unsuccessfully with Owen (we don't understand why that girl was wearing that outfit either!)

The most heartbreaking part of the day was when we first got picked up to go for the ride; there wasn't enough room for all of us. Jonathan decided to stay behind with Will and let Owen, Jake and I go. Jonathan would meet us at the end of the ride, then jump aboard with Will. We pulled out of the parking lot onto the street and Will broke away from Jonathan, sprinting after the wagon, crying... he wanted sooo badly to get on! I have never felt so guilty and terrible in my whole life. He loved it when he got his turn though, so it was a happy ending.

Welcome Hannah!

Owen, Will and Jake are proud to announce the arrival of their new (second) cousin, Hannah Ellen (named for our grandmother Ellen). Born to Meaghan and Chris and little sis to Ben.

Born Friday, November 24th and weighing in at 7 lbs 8 oz.

Little Hannah is the spitting image of her big brother.

According to Meaghan, Ben is taking it all in stride - he is so far quite enamored with the "cute baby girl" and even went so far as to try to share his juice and chips with her.

We can't wait to meet her. Chris & Meaghan -- Calgary is better than Ottawa!

Later That Night..

The last few Halloweens back home have been very chaotic. A lot of panicked rush, a lot of screaming and crying, a lot of Matilda barking and a lot of whining from Jake who wants to eat all of his candy on the spot. This year was no different. BUT this year we had a new awareness, at least on the part of Owen, for the whole idea of trick-or-treating. Owen shone that night. I may sound melodramatic (when don't I?), but I have never felt so proud of Owen before. Something happened that night that gave me a real glimpse of who he is.

We are learning that Owen is a learner who needs clear boundaries, well-defined structure and he needs to understand the rules of the game in order to succeed. When he has those things covered, he is nearly always successful. He is very particular, very methodical and precise and you can see that he takes great pride in himself. But you won't usually see him attempt a task on his own, without someone providing him with these steps. Will, on the other hand, usually dives right in with little care of whether he pulls it off or not. But he'll try everything. On his own or with help. He very rarely cries when he's doing his work, but when he does, it's nearly always obvious whether or not it's a compliance issue (he doesn't want to do something) or if he feels helpless/frustrated/defeated because he doesn't understand the task. It really is pitiful to see him when he feels this way. If his support aide requests him to "do this" and he's overwhelmed with the steps involved and doesn't understand how to proceed, big fat tears roll down his face and you'd swear the look on his face is saying "please help me understand because I know I won't be able to do what you are asking". I just imagine putting myself in his autistic mind and I feel how frightening it must be to not know how to do what people expect of you.

Cowboy Owen looks so excited as he waits to go trick-or-treating

So our night started off pretty rushed. The twins don't finish their program until 4:30 and on Halloween night, I think it got dark by 5:30. So we rushed a quick meal, got the kids in their costumes, then gave ourselves 10 minutes to get to the computer so the grandparents and Diane could all see the boys online. Luckily for us, Auntie Boom saved the day and decided to stay home to hand out candy.

Let's be honest.. she stayed home because she was looking for a break from our chaos and thought it would be the quieter option. This enabled both Jonathan and I to bring the boys out. Jake is an old pro at this and he remembered to use his manners.. he did great. Will didn't quite get the concept and was pretty fussy before we had even left the house, so we knew he wouldn't last too long. He managed to walk up to the doors of a few houses, but tried to walk right into their homes and forget even trying to get him to wait patiently for candy.

But Owen was the star of the night. He was so patient and in control. After our first house and having perfected the exchange of his 'trick or treat' picture card, he'd wave goodbye to the homeowner, then walk back to the end of the driveway. I swear I nearly cried, because at the end of the first driveway, he turned to me with the BIGGEST GRIN and I could tell that he was SO proud of himself. That is why we moved here.

the Cowboy is all tuckered out

After going to all of the neighbour's houses, Will was done and clearly just wanted to go home. Jake (naturally) was upset with us that we didn't visit every house in Calgary. We finished the night off with a visit to Sally & Greg's. It feels really nice to know, that in the absence of being with our family and friends back home, that we have people to visit on the special days and the kids truly enjoy being with them as well.

Aunt Sally spends some quality time with Cowboy Willy

Horsing around with Daddy

the perfect end to a fun night

All in all, it was a great first holiday spent in Calgary. The kids did really well. The parents did even better (we still have tons of candy to eat thanks to Owen's disinterest in it!). With Christmas just around the corner, we know that we've got a lot to look forward to.

Happy *really* belated Halloween! The morning

Please note that this was written a week ago, but sat in my draft folder until today (oops!):

I'm writing today from the home of -41 degree weather (with the windchill). Top it off with the fact that our furnace has shut down 4 times since last Thursday. But in spite of the cold, I am still thrilled to be living in this city. At least it's not damp and wet like it was in Ontario through most of the winter. And I have no problem with the cold as long as there is sunshine and we have plenty of that. Just pray my furnace keeps working. That being said. I am finally back online to post a few cute photos from our Hallowe'en (if I can remember that far back).

Jake's Hallowe'en started earlier in the week as he got to dress up in his costume for Beavers.

Jake was pretty proud of his zombie costume since it was mostly homemade with the help of Granny and Grandma

The girls at Owen and Will's nursery school put in many hours of practice with the boys for 3 weeks before the big day.. to have them get used to wearing their costumes. Jake and I were invited to participate in their Halloween party so that they could show off their new skills. We were lucky to have Auntie Boom up for a visit, so she was able to come as well.

Erin - one of the head co-ordinators of the nursery school

Courtney - one of the boys' aides at the school

Erin - an aide at the nursery school and in our home in the afternoons

Here is Pam - the head "teacher" at the school, trick-or-treating with our friend, Owen M.

Here is Ella the elephant - the siblings got to join in the fun as well

Owen M. the lion did a great job of keeping on his hood.. ask Mom how many hours of practice that took!

Owen was tired out after the grueling task of begging door to door for candy.

Will was at attention at circle-time beside his friend, Harrison.

The whole morning was an amazing experience for me to watch. Our kids are doing so well in their school and programs and we take such pride in everything they are accomplishing, be it learning new daily living skills, imitation or matching, etc. But to see how important it is to their teachers to teach the boys skills that can let them be typical kids doing typical kid things.. it really makes me emotional and I am sincerely filled with such gratitude that our support system (our aides, our teachers, social workers, etc) value the same things that we do and they are dedicated to make it happen.

Just imagine the process and I wish you could have seen how cute the kids looked as they went through their routine: lining up at the nursery school door with plastic pumpkins in hand. Each pumpkin had a labelled photograph of candy that the children learned to hand over to whoever opened their office door (they trick-or-treated in the same office building where the nursery school is located). This photograph was their form of communicating "trick-or-treat" and the kids understood that they then had to wait with their pumpkin basket extended to receive the exchange of candy. Upon the opening of the doors, with the employees inside already anticipating the kids' visits, all of us in the hall yelled "trick or treat" with no upset or tantrums. The kids shyly (Owen) or aggressively (Will) went into the office to do their exchange, then they all patiently waited until it was time to move on to the next door. It was great.

I admit that there are many times when we assume that the boys are indifferent to what we are doing as a family. Activities are mostly determined based on what Jake wants to do and whether Owen and Will will have the patience to follow along. Very rarely do the twins actively participate in the activity, but we go through the motions with them anyway. This year, the boys were able to be a real part of it. I can only say thanks to their school for making that happen.