A Birthday Cake Substitute

Yesterday was a big day for us. Our son's shadow, a perfectly ABA trained behavioral therapist was going to school for the last time. It's devastating for us, a loss of control - but ultimately it is a celebration, all sides are in agreement, including me - Our son is doing so well he no longer needs his shadow - we aren't phasing out the shadow all together, but it will be a school supplied shadow, who has spent more than a month training with the ABA BT and my son in the room. I cannot complain, we are incredibly lucky (And we all worked REALLY HARD to get here -but I know that some people are working really hard and still never get where we are - so I offer up thanks!)

In any case the class, Pre-K wanted to throw a party for the BT - everybody got very attached to him. I said that I would bring a cake for the class, and I also knew that I would have to bring an alternative for my son - his teacher has Celiacs Disease so whatever I make for my son I make for her as well. The week got away from me and I didn't have my usual supplies - I woke up the morning of the party and had no idea what I was going to do - Luckily inspiration struck.

I took GFCF Namaste Sugar Free Pancake Mix and mixed it up. I use water and a little fruit juice instead of the rice milk. I made the pancakes and then stacked them 3 high with a very little bit of Trader Joes Cherry Morello Jam (also sugar free) in between the pancakes for sticking power. Then I got out my graduated heart cookie cutters and cut hearts out of the pancakes. They were really cute and they tasted great. Both my son and his teacher wanted seconds - Next time I make them - which will probably be Valentines Day I will take a picture and post it.

The best part - they took less than 5 minutes to make! Wooohooooo!

Now the bad part - there is a new student in my son's class who is somewhere on the spectrum - this is a mainstreamed class that is allowed to have 3 high functioning special needs students. I had noticed the last time I had been to school that the new student was eating snack with the other children, while my son wasn't - It was a gluten thing. So I just assumed, that he wasn't on the GFCF - so I didn't ask if there was something that I could bring for him. As it turns out he is on the Feingold - which wouldn't have been a problem, but I put apple juice in the pancakes. His mother had been told that the kids would be having cake - just as I am always told - so she did send a snack for him. But he sat there and cried and cried - he wanted cake - either what my son was having or what everyone else was having. I felt like a criminal. I won't ever make the mistake of assuming again. I feel like I should know better by now, but I didn't. Lesson learned. I need to reach out to this Mom, and apologize. I guess I have been afraid of being pushy, or saying the wrong thing. Time to suck it up and step up! I'll let you know how it goes.