Halloween....we survived!

   Halloween is a dicey holiday for Nixon. He wants so badly to be a part of it, but he also can get super overwhelmed by the festivities. Years past we've gone trick-or-treating with him only to have him start crying and screaming at people. He will want a costume with a mask then refuse to wear the mask at all.

*The first year this happened he was Iron Man. When he refused the mask, I bought a black face paint crayon and drew a Tony Stark-inspired goatee on Nixon. He loved it and we got a bunch of compliments on the unique way I chose to handle his mask aversion.*

    Nixon's also very rule-oriented. If he's told something is a rule, once he gets it it's a rule for him and everyone around him, most cases. Before we went out last night, he was reminded to say "trick or treat" and "thank you", only take one piece of candy (when presented a bowl as a lot of the people did this last year) and to be polite to others around him when waiting at houses.
    At one house this year, he took his one piece of candy and was then offered a bag of pretzels from another bowl, at the same house. Nixon paused and was visibly bothered, thinking he now needed to choose between the candy he just chose and the bag of pretzels. I could see he was getting upset by the choice he preserved he had to make, and I gently told him it was okay he could have both. He said  many "thank you"s as we left when he realized he didn't have to choose!
    There were quite a few teens out, and they were typical teens out on Halloween: loud, rambunctious and pushy. Nixon was quite nervous around the groups of teens, he'd grip my hand really hard and get very close to me, but he never yelled/cried or got upset. He coped with them in a way he hadn't been able to in the past.

    At one house, Nixon was leaving when he saw a toddler drop a couple pieces of candy from their bucket. Nixon picked them up and waited for the toddler to come down the steps. Nixon then said "Here you dropped these" and tried putting them back in the little boy's bucket. The child kept walking towards his mother, dropping another piece of candy, which Nixon again picked up. He got frustrated and said "MOM, he won't stop moving so I can't give them back" and put the candy in my hand. The child's mom was next to me and I explained that her child had dropped the candy from his bucket and my son wanted to return them to him. She gratefully took the candy back and said "thank you" to Nixon, who was then right as rain and ready to move on. It never crossed his mind to keep the dropped candies, because they weren't his. I could not have been more proud of him than I was at that moment. 

   We walked about 2 miles overall and he was a champ the entire time. The last half-mile he took the mask off. This Halloween was one I had envisioned when I was pregnant with him and dreaming of our future with him. It took us 6 years, but it finally happened and it was so worth the wait!