As you might guess, Halloween can be a tricky time for our family. I, personally, love Halloween. I love the dressing up and trick or treating, but…I have a son with PWS. I vividly remember after getting the diagnosis (over the phone-but that’s another story) that I got on-line and googled PWS. I was devastated to learn what the condition was. Some of my first thoughts were: How can he ever lead a normal life? How will he be able to spend the night at friends’ houses? What will Thanksgiving and Christmas be like? What about Halloween? He’ll never be able to trick or treat.
We’ve all come a long way since those days and the first response to that devastating news. We’ve dressed up and gone trick or treating every year since he’s been born. It’s never been an issue and when it is, we’ll change our tactics. What’s great about trick or treating for our family is that we all like to dress up, and while the candy is nice, it’s mostly about getting out and seeing people. Cainan is a social butterfly and holding his bag open while he says trick or treat is part of the experience, he doesn’t really seem to care about the candy that gets dropped into the bag. He just really likes talking to people and showing off his costume. The trick or treating is just a side note and an excuse to start talking to someone.
So, Friday night, we all dressed up. Joe and I met Ron downtown and we took the boys trick or treating at the Medford Halloween celebration. It was perfect weather; very fall like, blustery but not cold. We went from store to store, letting the boys say trick or treat and show off for all the shop keepers who were enjoying their dressed up patrons. In actuality, the boys got very little candy. I let Cainan and Asher pick one treat to have with their snacks that night, and we’ve done one each evening as part of their snack. The 30 calorie mini Musketeer or 20 calorie sucker is not going to hurt Cainan’s diet and he’s so thrilled by the treat. I will be throwing the rest out in the next day or so, but at least, he got to feel like a “normal kid” for a brief time. For the most part, he still doesn’t know he’s different from anyone else and I relish these days that he is innocent and care free.
Cainan was absolutely thrilled to dress up as Dr. Jones. We took him in Friday morning to snap a few pictures with Dr. Jones. I dressed him up in a nice Tommy Hilfiger button down shirt, some khaki pants and Ralph Lauren Polo shoes. He had a stethoscope and I completed his costume with a turquoise bracelet. He wore a white lab coat, just so he would be more recognizable as a doctor, even though Dr. Jones doesn’t wear a coat (don’t want to give kids that white coat phobia sometimes associated with unpleasant experiences at the doctors office).
Asher, although he would never talk about it, accepted his Thomas the Tank Engine costume without hesitation when the time came to dress up. Joe had an engineer’s hat that just put the whole thing over the top for cuteness because it was about 5 sizes too big and kept falling down over his eyes. He was darling.
Joe and I dressed up in our 70’s gear, afro and all. All the pictures are posted at: Photobucket.com/molzer77
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