Jack in the Box

This is a picture of Dear Son as a Jack in the Box. At this point, I started using the wheelchair as part of the costume. This opened a world of possibilites however it was the last Halloween costume I made since Dear Son was in the hospital after that and then he got too old. One of the last costumes I wanted to do was to have him as an army guy in a Hummer and to build the Hummer over the wheelchair.

I would love to make costumes for kids in the hospital. Some of the costumes I'd like to make are a fireman in a fire truck (complete with a wooden ladder, bell and dalmation) with the fire truck fitting over the wheelchair, an astronaunt in a rocket and for a girl, a princess in a castle where the castle would fit over the wheelchair. I'd love to make these costumes for the kids and then if they are in the hospital on Halloween, the Child Life department could allow the kids to select the costumes and then take a picture of the child for Halloween in the costume of their choice. I am not a real crafty person but I'd like to think I have an awful lots of costumes that I could create.

It is more difficult when you child is disabled and in a wheelchair at Halloween because you can't go trick or treating in the traditional way. When the child doesn't speak, you can't have them say "Trick or Treat" and they often can't hold the bucket nor can they even eat the candy, assuming of course, you would let your child eat it to begin with. I took him a few times to show off his costumes, which is really what it's all about and hooked up his communication device to the foot of his wheelchair. He could then take his foot and hit the communication device to say, "Trick or Treat". It's never really about the act of trick or treating but about having experiences as a parent or a mother that is normal and typical. There are so many times when you'd just like to be normal and do things like other mothers or have your children do things like the other kids. As the mother of a special needs child, everything is always a lot more difficult.

I had so much fun creating all of these costumes. The inspiration was my best friend in grade school. At that time, we would go home for lunch and come back in our Halloween costumes. Her mother always made exceptional costumes for her and sometimes, they were so good she was totally unrecognizable when she returned. I decided I wanted to be the mother who made the cool costumes. It turned out, it was a fun way to celebrate Dear Son.

Now that he's too old.....I've been thinking about the cat. The cat's only five years old. I made two costumes over the years, the Cat in the Hat (with the cat sitting in the hat) and made a Batman costume due to the cat's coloring. He didn't like the second one. But I could also do, "Cat's in the Cradle" or "Catsup and Mustard" with the cat sitting in half of a catsup bottle (I would make the catsup and mustard bottles plus I have a Munchkin cat that's only seven pounds so he'd look cute) and have the catsup and mustard bottle on a red gingham tablecloth. Hmmm,.....I could take these pictures and make them into Halloween postcards......