Autism Halloween Costumes

Well our 4H group had their Halloween party. My son with Asperger's wanted to dress up but not wear a mask or face paint. He also didn't want to look scary or silly. He didn't want to wear vampire teeth or go as a ghost. Since I was running out of ideas I concentrated on the other two who were going. My wife and Autistic son were not going due to his aprehension to people in masks and my wife's apprehension about parties outside in the cold and rain.

Our youngest wanted to go as a mummy. We went the cheap and easy route with this one. 4 rolls of toilet paper and some scotch tape and bam! we had a costume. Our Aspy son did not want to go as a mummy (too easy).

My daughter who was Nancy Drew at another party wanted to go as a Zombie this time. A half hour of face painting and we had a costume. Remember no face paint for the Aspy son (again too easy)

Finally out of desperation I had the idea to dress of our Aspy son as hillbilly. A pair of my bib overalls and flannel shirt. We stuffed a pillow in the belly area wrapped it with an ace bandage to hold in place. We also stuck a pillow in the but region to add some back fat. I blacked out a tooth and dirtied up his face with just a touch of black face paint. Voila! instant fat hillbilly or as he said "that's hillwilliam to you good sir" (too much Simpsons).

Before we got to the party our youngest son's toilet paper started to rip and come off. I guess cheap and easy don't always work the best. During the course of the party there was a game of clothespin tag. The toilet paper was no match for a young boy and a yard of damp grass. At least he got to tee pee his first yard on Halloween. When the game was done half his costume was strewn across the lawn and blowing into bushes and trees. It was like someone blew up the outhouse. As the party continued I was able to track his movements by following the paper trail.

My Aspy son's costume was not fairing too well either. The blacked out tooth had become more reminiscent of tobacco juice stains all down his chin and all over his teeth. the pillow that had started out as a pot belly had worked it's way up to become a huge chest and the back pillow bunched up to give him a huge butt. He was transforming into a Rosanne Barr only with less tobacco stains.

The only costume that fared well was our Zombie daughter. Next year Zombies all around!

Typical Autism Family Weekend

Well aside from the meltdown of our son with Asperger's, the OC behaviors of our Autistic son, the ADHD of our Daughter and the LD issues of our youngest son, we have it pretty easy around here(sarcasm).



Last weekend I returned from an errand feeling lucky having received some free boards only to find that my wife's foot went through the floor of our bathroom due to constant water soaking around the tub. After teasing her about breaking the floor boards I was relieved that at least it wasn't near the toilet.



While cutting out the rotten part of the floor and panicking about how to repair it, my daughter ran in crying that something had dug up her bunny that we recently had to bury. She also reported that the goat had chased the cat onto the roof and it wouldn't come down. So now I had a dead bunny in the yard, a goat on my deck, a cat on my roof and a large hole in our bathroom floor. So far a good day at our house.



While reburying the rabbit my wife screamed in terror when our microwave blew. Apparently the high use for chicken nuggets and pizza rolls (youngest son's snacks) finally wore it out. How are we going to cook without a microwave? ADHD kids can't wait on a conventional oven to cook things that would be too long they would starve.

This had all happened a couple days after getting the news that our mini-van's transmission was fried and we need to come up with 2 grand to fix it. (whole other story to that)



I always feel like Charlie Brown on Halloween...."I got a rock"