Treats

tangerines from my tree!

The treats aren't always candy.  After a long day in the car I gave Peggy an apple.  A real hard apple, not cut up or baked in a pie but one that you could sink your teeth into. A crunchy delicious one.  You know the kind, you can hear it.  She couldn't stop talking about how good it was.

Once I brought tangerines. That wonderful smell when you start to peel it!  Food it's familiar, it's comforting, it's sensory, it's totally in the moment, just like her.

I gave her a lollipop, my new treat of choice, just like when I used them as my secret weapon with my girls when they were toddlers, when I had just one more errand that I needed to accomplish.  She's from Connecticut and I thought she would love looking at the lobsters and the beautiful displays at Fish King.
Peggy talks a lot to herself and asks everybody what their name is and where they live.    I wheeled her up to a table so I could order and she had her grape lollipop and didn't talk quite so much. :)   Then of course we ate our New England clam chowder, and it was really really creamy and good with real clams!

So dont' get me wrong, we love healthy fresh food but candy is nice too, especially when it is an amazing bar of chocolate like what our friends Bill and Nicole sent us for the holidays from Vosage in peppermint and marzipan.  Hey, it's filled with anti-oxidants right?  And research says that's good for the both of us.

 Here is a great article from the New York Times. Very helpful as I contemplate raising the dose of depacote for my Mom. I always bring treats, for her, for me, for the girls and the caregivers. Makes us all feel better sometimes. The more research outside of the box the better, or in this case inside the box of chocolates.

Giving Alzheimer's Patients Their Way, Even Chocolate