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!