Halloween 2011
November 1, 2011 | Updates
This year Halloween was a bit different for us. It’s so hard to dress Samuel in anything because he has so many sensory issues. That and, well, he’s in a wheelchair so it sort of limits the options. But I just couldn’t stand to send him one more time as something ho-hum. Sometimes, you just want your kid to stand out because they’re awesome, not because they’re different. So, I decided it was time to do something fun and that’s just what we did!
Samuel went as “Russell”, the little boy scout in the movie UP. He was more interested in the balloons during these pictures than he was in me. Isn’t he a cutie, though?
But making his costume turned out to be quite a task. And involving my other boys in it turned out to be quite fun. As I lay in bed last night, thinking of the day we had, I realized that I spent a ton more time this year WITH my kids preparing for Halloween than I ever have before. And you know what? It was fun!
The other discovery I’ve made lately is that sometimes I take Samuel places for my benefit, not his, and that I need to stop doing that. Samuel loves going to school, so I took him in his costume and he had a great day. He also seemed to enjoy trunk-or-treating because it wasn’t too cold yet and there were tons of kids there. But when it came time to go trick-or-treating door-to-door, I went ahead and left Samuel home. It was HARD for me to do. I like to take him with us as often as we can because I want us to be as NORMAL as possible and I want him to be INCLUDED in life. But at the same time, he HATES the cold and thus, he would have HATED going door-to-door. Leaving him home to watch a movie was much more his style. I think I need to keep in mind that although it’s a good goal to include him in all that we can, sometimes it’s ok for him to do his own thing.
Another benefit that came from leaving him home was that I could pay attention to my other kids as we went around the neighborhood. And although we all love Samuel more than we could possibly say, sometimes, the other kids need their time, too.
Nathan was Thor. Well, he was Thor at school and for the 1st half of trick-or-treating. Then he changed into his Captain America costume. I’m telling you, costumes are the best investment with him. He dresses up daily as Batman, Superman, Buzz Lightyear, Thor and Captain America. He can pretend like no one else I know and he LOVES it. Honestly, so do I!
All in all, it was a great day! And, this year, I read a photo post that suggested taking Halloween pictures BEFORE trick-or-treating. Wow, what a novel idea! We always do the jump out of the car, gather round, smile once before heading off to get candy photo and I never really like it. This year, I took a little time with each kid and it was MUCH better! (I did resize them wrong when uploading them for this post, but I’m not doing it again, so you’ll have to deal with them being too large :).
If you know Ben, then you know that he loves anything to do with the army. He threw this costume together at the last second. The fake blood was all I had to buy for it. The helmet with the bullet hole was leftover from his Dad’s childhood adventures. Crazy, no?
Weston was the Men in Black…well, he was one of the Men in Black. His friend was the other. The funniest thing was that I kept telling Wes to stop smiling because he was shooting bad guys and you normally don’t smile when you’re doing that. He couldn’t help it. And if you know him, you know that is just how he is…can’t help smiling…all.the.time!
And that was Halloween.
Fall is hitting hard and the colorful leaves are almost gone. Snow flitters our way for a moment now and then. The warm clothes are out. I’m starting to make Christmas lists. And the fireplace is going each night. Keep cozy!
Love,
The Jewkes
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
November 2nd, 2011 at 2:44 pm, Erin Says:
Love the costumes especially Samuel’s! I was going to do a hot air balloon this year with Colby and decorate his wheelchair but ran out of time and he just wanted to be spiderman any way. For the third year in a row! You make a great point about wanting to be “normal” versus doing what’s best for the individual child. We have never taken Colby to see the Christmas lights at temple square because it would be miserable for him. The cold, the over stimulation, the drive down and back, the people. It would just be cruel to do that to him but we have several members of the family who think that we need to do it for him and they just don’t understand how hard it would be. Oh well maybe one day they will until then we go in our neighborhood and he likes that just fine!