Liam's First Halloween!

It's taken us this long for Liam to understand the excitement of any Holiday. For years we have down played our holiday celebrations to accommodate Liam due to his anxiety he gets when he's surprised or if the routine is different. In his own excited words "Momma, this is my first Halloween! I'm sooo excited!" This year was such a treat to be able to "actually" go trick or treating for REAL. Every Halloween we have had was trick or treating but at our OWN house, we would role play and knock on each others doors and give out candy because Liam didn't want to go to other houses. He was too overwhelmed with everything and it ended up being an evening about 'forcing' him to have fun like everyone 'should', but we realized he's not like everyone so why make a kid miserable when it's about having fun?! It's silly to try to be normal and do normal traditions for us, it's outcome is usually not a pleasant one and that's what the holidays are suppose to be about for the kids. This year, our "break through year", is going to be our first of many fun traditions to finally set in place for our family.

Days after his Halloween he has been cranky and is showing signs of anxiety (I've had to bandage his thumbs because he's bothering his cuticles again, he hasn't done that in a while). But he had a whole week of his school being out of routine with red ribbon week, he had a play date with a boy from his class, & he's had his first Halloween all in one week so I think he's in need of his routine again before his anxiety gets out of control. I think one of many secrets to our success has been to stay ahead of his behaviors and to limit the "triggers" as much as possible. Another secret is to be a great mind reader but that isn't always possible, lol, if it were I don't think we would ever have troubles. ;) So we will try to calm things down and let him get back to a normal day before we get in to "meltdown territory".