Preparations for Halloween

I love Halloween I’m a big kid at heart. It’s more than the actual night of Halloween that excites me. Its the fun leading up to it.

We do lots of crafting, where we make spooky decorations and funky treats. At the moment we are actually making spooky bookmarks, a creepy wreath and some freaky masks. These I plan to show on my sister blog Mummy of many talents over the next couple of days or so.

Little man can be a bit funny when it comes to Halloween. He doesn’t mind it if we go out of the house, he even enjoys a spot of trick or treating around some Pre selected neighbours houses. However staying in is what seems to make him anxious.

One year, a couple of kids dashed some eggs at the front door. We returned home just as they were in the process of egging the living room widows and this really upset little man. What made it worse was the children were of course wearing mask so we couldn’t see them. When at school a couple of kids were laughing about the incident and poking fun at little man. It really upset him as he was puzzled how they knew… He failed to relate the two and draw the conclusion that it was in fact these very children who had done the egging.

He also watches to much news on the TV (as much as I try to discourage) so, when he heard about a local gang who were robbing people in their homes by posing as trick or treaters he begged we didn’t open the door the entire night.

This year my plan involves being out from the moment the sun goes down and the vampires and witches start parading the streets. We will do our usual visit to the neighbours then head to my mums for a glass of wine (soft drinks for the kids) and go home only once the candy hungry children have started to dispel.

Usually we have costume dilemmas when it comes to little man. His tactile defensive so really can’t tolerate anything for long. He usually removes any mask before we’ve even left the house. Not so long ago he reviewed an awesome Freddy costume but again the mask proved too much so this got passed on to little sister who now looks forward to wearing it.

Thankfully, his decided on a costume he wants to wear and although it requires him to wear a mask, its fitted with foam padding around the bridge of the nose making it much more comfortable for him to wear. It’s from Very who do some excellent Halloween Costumes

Its called the Evil Eye Skull and The mask has this awesome feature where its eyes flash red and fade in and out. It comes with robe and over drape and despite it being designed for a child aged 8-10 it still fits the little man perfectly. He has loads of room in it to more about and can wear it over his own clothes comfortably.

Harley is likely to have his face painted or maybe I’ll have to get extra creative and find him something halloween themed but not to scary… After all he is only almost 3.

As for me, I’ve decided to go as myself! After all I’ve lost count of the amount of times my children have branded me a wicked witch… *evil laugh*

So… What’s everyone else up to? Anyone got any creative Halloween ideas to share?

A somewhat weird Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween, and in all honesty it was a bit of a weird one.

Alice-Sara returned to school following the half-term  Little man didn’t return in till today. Nonetheless, I wasn’t having him remain in bed all day and he did finally get up after much debate & a pretty standard meltdown!

After giving the kids some breakfast, my youngest took a mid-morning nap which surprised me as he hasn’t done this for quite some time, however, with the bubba asleep and little man refusing to budge from in front of the television to let me watch some ‘This Morning’ I decided to sneak upstairs and indulge in a little twitter before catching up on some reviews (though it’s not like there wasn’t more practical things I should have been doing like, de-cluttering my wardrobe). Oh yes, the lack of wardrobe space I can no longer ignore, as much as I hate getting rid of any of my clothing some of it has to go (with the exception of footwear) that’s a big NO, NO.

Later I needed to head of to the doctor’s surgery to pick up the Little man’s prescription for his Melatonin, which has been change to a different brand as a result of the National health cuts. This basically means, he will now take a brand of Melatonin called ‘Circadian’ given in the form of a tablet, instead of the capsules he was on before. I had also raised concerns with the Doctor as the melatonin seemed to be wearing of quite quickly (or not working at all) The new medication is a prolonged release and can you believe it, I woke up this morning only to realise that Little man hasn’t woken all night not once! ‘Please God let this continue!’ This was the first time I have slept all night in… I don’t know how long!

I also had to see the Doctor who was strangely dressed as a vampire in the spirit of the Halloween. “Um… Yes, this was a pretty strange experience given I was there to talk about my need to change contraception”! This wasn’t something I saw myself doing when I woke up that morning, discussing my women’s business with a blood sucking vampire with fake blood running down his chin!

Next stop was the local chemist to exchange my prescription for something that would get the Little man some much-needed kip. This was just as weird given I was served by a teenager in a cat suit who wore the most freakish set of contact lenses I’ve ever come across (completely white with a little black pin dot in place of a pupil)!

The next stop would be my mothers to collect the children, as I walked the short distance I was passed by cute little one’s dressed in adorable costumes, trick or treating with their parents. I also passed the local yobs egging the bus then running away from the neighbour hood patrollers, “It’s all found and games where I live”!

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any wackier, as I approached my mothers turning, I noticed some random middle-aged guy rolled in a ball laying on the pavement This man was either trying to save a parking space for the wife, or maybe even dead, I wasn’t sure! Well, me being the tit that I can be, “Occasionally” decided to be a  good citizen by asking him, “Excuse me, are you dead” “Come on… if he was, I wasn’t going to get an answer was I !” Sometimes I ask the most stupid questions, but I blame it on having kids 🙂 Well, the good news is, he wasn’t dead, just as pissed as a fart, I did try to warn him it would be an idea if he moved on, (not that he was bothering me, I could just see him getting egged by the rotten lot at the bottom of the hill). He mumbled and then went back to sleep. I tried, but had kids to collect, so went on my way.

Once at my mothers I told my little sister what I had witnessed, it was only then I discovered he had been there some 3 hours before, as my sister  had seen him when collecting my daughter from school! She informed me that some local people who live in the houses near where he was laying, had tried getting him up but he wasn’t having any off it! With that I called the guys in blue, and expressed my concern. No one deserves to be left In that state no matter if it’s self inflicted or otherwise. Well, someone had to move him!

I left my mothers an hour and a half later to see the blue light only just approaching. The poor drunken dude was still laying there on the ground only now he was covered in eggs from his head down to his toes, good job the police were there at last, otherwise I fear he may have been eaten by a hungry fox or two.

It had been an eventful evening, the trip to the surgery had saved me from an evening of “Trick or treat” my sister took them instead, though I felt no guilt when tucking into their sweets when they were sleeping,! They had so many I was sure they would never notice, of course Little man proved me wrong with the screaming and shouting this morning! I’m sure the neighbours came to the conclusion that I had done a lot more than pinched a few celebrations and a packet of mix-up when he branded me a big fat thief, “Nice, I know!”

So… That was our Halloween, a tad strange and one I wont forget in a hurry. Honestly, I’ll never look at that doctor the same way again!

Well, here’s a belated Happy Halloween from ‘A boy with Aspergers’ we hope you had a spook-taculer time!

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A disastrous half-term

Wow! We’ve defiantly had one hell of  a crazy few weeks.

I wanted to post this at the end of last week, but life being what it is, I didn’t stand a chance! You see, our half term didn’t start off too well (Understatement of a life time) The Friday the children broke up from school was going pretty well… That was in till our brand new living room ceiling fell through. “Does this ring any bells?” Those readers of the blog, that have supported me for quite sometime may remember this post “What went bump in the night” posted back in May 2009. Well, It would seem that I’m the receiver of bad luck, that and this sodding house is jinxed! If you are unaware of what did actually go bump in the night, I’ll give you one guess? … Of course it was my ceiling, what else! When the ceiling came down last year (I mean the entire ceiling) I was pregnant. The massive cloud of dust was too much to bear for myself and the children. It set of the fire alarms sending Little man “BONKERS” He had fallen asleep on the sofa, some ten minutes before the stupid thing fell down. Lucky his father was round who thankfully had noticed a strange sound. That strange sound was in-fact the ceiling cracking above their very heads. I was upstairs with my daughter half asleep watching a dvd. Little man was saved by daddy! He had scooped him up and made a runner to safety. Just as he shouted my name followed by something I didn’t understand! (His panicking state had him shouting in what seemed a foreign language)  Before I could ask him to repeat himself I heard the crash. Within seconds the house was like an ash cloud. Needless to say my children were petrified. Little man kept shouting… “FIRE”  what with the dust, smells and fire alarms going off  (who can blame him when he protested that smoke alarms were only meant to discover fire)

That was a nightmare night and it wasn’t set to be our last!

I was in a state of shock when it happen again! The last one fell due to old plaster being the problem. This time it came down with not only a huge crash but loads of stinky water that happened to be hot. I had been complaining about this old, wet, musky smell for weeks. I had to convince myself it was just me or it was something that would eventually  just disappear! I searched everywhere for the cause with no luck at all. It was gone nine p.m. when disaster stuck … Meaning the housing office was closed and I would need to ring the out of hours number. It’s funny! Given the amount of work I’ve had done on the house (most caused by the ceiling collapsing last year) I was remarkably clam. The receptionist on the other end of the line told me so… I think they expected a screaming mad woman. You see I had to go to the paper and kick a fuss to get that new ceiling & the crumbled walls replaced. “I even moved out” It was horrid as Little mans routine went off the wall, all he wanted was to go back home! My daughter was fine given we were staying at my mothers in which she loves. I also had my beautiful new-born  to look after. Though the damaged occurred in May 09 our ceiling wasn’t finished to the September and the walls in March 2010! Now this has happened!

Turns out the plasterers who had done the ceiling had nailed the plaster-board  through a water pipe leading to my daughters radiator. It had slowly leaked (Hence the reason for the musky smell) for well over a year…. In-till I decided it that fateful Friday night, that it was a little nippy in my daughter’s room so cranked up the temperature… Resulting in my living room becoming a flooded bomb site, my son running round like some “lunatic” and a great big mess to clean up! Of course this wasn’t the highlight of my year so far and I’m sure god has plenty more surprises in store. As you can expect despite remaining pretty clam, I wasn’t best pleased!

On a lighter note, the rest of the half-term went pretty well. We didn’t really do or go anyway (About from bus riding, but what’s new there!)

Halloween was quite fun:) Mainly due to the fact that once I had completed a few roads of trick or treating with my daughter I got to go home and have a bit of mummy time. Little man went with his friend next door and his mum, and my daughter then decided to go with her aunty and cousin as apparently I was a tad to slow *giggle* Well, was I complaining? Hell no! The baby was with his daddy and I was completely childless for all of an hour and what a blissful hour it was 🙂 (I love all three of you, but mummy also loves some sanity)

The children’s costumes were fabulous and were brought by my friend who loves spoiling them rotten. My daughter was a classic witch… big nose, teeth, black lipstick and the full outfit. Little man was a monster of some sort and even Harley had a devil dress up (Not that he participated but oh how cute he looked!) We discovered that little man couldn’t tolerate the mask, luckily he kept it on long enough for me to take a picture. His sensory sensitivities also meant he didn’t like the feel of the suit, but once we had explained he could wear it over his normal hoodie and track-pants (He would live in these if I let him) he was fine! Of course I had the dreaded fear he would be rude to people “Give me the candy Now” or “Your gay” (Don’t know why but he is always saying this one) Lucky I needn’t have worried, he was fine and I was told he was actually very polite.… *Big Smiles* I suppose he figured out that in order to gain candy he should just zip it 🙂 Last Halloween was a nightmare as little man throw a wobbler and had a huge meltdown while we were out with a parent and child from his class. Red cheeks and weepy eyes, I had to escort him home. It really didn’t help that I was the size of a beach whale due to being pregnant and just a few weeks from my due date!  Little man could not get his head around my changing shape. He would quite bluntly tell me I was huge (I could always rely on an honest opinion that’s for sure!) Well, he got angry that night and kept calling me fatty. Yep I wanted to be swallowed up whole by the ground beneath me. Pregnancy hormones had me a blubbering wreck, but lucky for me & little man, she completely understood and still remains to be non judgemental when it comes to little man.

So all that’s left now is the 5th of November to contend with. Last year little man did his Army SAS crawl, that gave the impression he was being shot at, when at a public display. Its fair to say we wont be doing that again….…Fireworks will be watched through the safety and comfort of his bedroom window 🙂