Not many people know this about me but... I hate Halloween. I always have. Even though it involves free sweets. I enjoyed it when I was with my sisters and we had the three boys together the one year- that was cool. But overall, not for me. And we weren't sure what we were going to do this past year. We are both content to not really promote it with Caelan not to mention that he doesn't care for it himself because he won't wear anything on his head or face or most costumes we have tried. He is also so visually sensitive that we don't want to put him in an overwhelming situation of multiple people and things that will upset him sensory wise.
This past year we asked him several times for a couple of weeks if he wanted to go trick-or-treating or get dressed up and he said no. So we were going to just skip it altogether. Then around 4:30 that afternoon I saw a post on Face Book by someone about a local church doing a Fall Festival that had games, candy and prizes, food, jumping houses, petting zoo- the works- for FREE. So an hour later we were there!
We had such a great time! He had been to that building before for some other activities so he was ok with the environment. There were some people in costumes but that wasn't the focus so he was fine to not be in one and there was little risk of him being visually set off by that. And I love the look on his face in these pictures!
He was really good at the games and wait til you see the videos!
Throwing a football
Picking a duck out of the pond for prizes (he was content to do this over and over and over again- not for the prizes but because he loves to watch water)
Baseball!
Angry Birds game- Daddy helped him pull back the slingshot and...
let it go to knock down the piggies!
a break for some sugar cinnamon donuts and apple cider
more games
Ok... this picture above- this was his face when he looked over and saw The Man in the Yellow Hat (from Curious George). LOOK at his expression!! He was in awe! I was not able to get a picture of the guy though due to the crowd and stuff but this was a priceless moment.
mmmmm..... cotton candy! Mommy gets in on a little of that!
this first video.... Caelan struggles with balance, core strength, coordination/motor planning, and not to mention the whole vestibular piece that affects slides. He wanted to go into this inflatable obstacle course so I went in with him. I figured he would get to a certain point and turn around. Which was more than fine- we always encourage and support whatever he wants to do in these areas. But wait until you see this!! And he did it THREE times!! (I was exhausted!!) This was the final time we went through and I had Matt video it because this was a major, major accomplishment on many levels. We were so thrilled! (we made copies for his therapists who were just as excited as us)
And when he is at the top of the slide, you can hear him scream at one point (upset) but it was because I was trying to get myself situated and he was trying to get in my lap- he thought I was going to make him go down alone. But obviously, he enjoyed it!
video 2- one thing he has always done well with is hand-eye coordination (when he focuses). Anytime I set the tee up in the backyard, he has done well hitting the ball. So here he is hitting the ball at the festival. I love how he stops to tap the bat on the ground- he is so cute!
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