I've been a little slovenly again of late, mostly due to plain business, but also because L has been progressing reasonably well. Well, at least there have been very few new challenges to share with you anyway.
Christmas is always an interesting time of year, and with young children, you can rarely go wrong. Their excitement is palpable, contagious and wonderful. At one stage around a week before christmas, I caught them both lying on the rug, watching the 'sleeps to christmas' app counting down the seconds to Christmas!
It also presents challenges, not least because as an annual event, it doesn't really fall into the easily planned and regular activity which an Autistic child relishes. We had spent a long time preparing the boys for Christmas though - Christmas lists, advent calendars and even the 'elf on the shelf' to keep an eye on them. Unfortunately, the elf wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms.
The idea is simple - the elf arrives with a story book on 1st December. The story explains how he goes back to santa each night to report on the boys behaviour, and each morning is in a different place in the house. Sounds delightful?
Well, clearly the thought of a potential living being in the house, one who can move freely around and appear anywhere, and one who watches the boys with an eerie silence much like the weeping angels in Doctor Who initially provoked a not disimilar reaction when, the next morning, L did not react well to 'Odie's' new location.
Needless to say, we decided to keep him downstairs for the next few days.
After a while, he was welcomed into the family. L even spent time talknig to him and explaining the 5 gifts he wanted from his list and what he was going to do with them. I hadn't quite appreciated originally, but very soon it was apparent that here was the dream conversational partner for L. Someone who wouldn't keep interrupting him because he was labouring the point after 15 minutes of explaining in minute detail. Someone who wouldn't stop him and say he has already heard it. Someone who wouldn't say no. That he didn't say anything wasn't a problem.
Odie wrote a few letters back to the boys and became a very good idea, so I thank my wife for that and, as per Odie's last letter, left on Christmas morning after he had gone home with santa, and leading to the motherload of presents (14 each in the end - they were clearly very good boys), eagerly await next year and Odie's return on 1st December 2013.
Only 1,213,730 seconds to go (as of writing!).
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