Dynamic Duo

We ended October with a visit from Batman and Robin. This was the first year that Noah could really appreciate Halloween. (Last year’s staph infection and subsequent hospital stay put a damper on the holiday.) This year, he was ready to be Andrew’s sidekick. Turns out, Noah loves to dress up! He couldn’t wait to get his costume on, practically running to Taylor’s lap when it was time. Our first stop was the Holy Rosary Halloween party. It’s basically semi-controlled chaos, with superheroes, witches, princesses, and pirates running all over the gym. The older kids set up carnival-like games for the little ones, who go from station to station trying to win toys and candy. The kids love it. As it turns out, Noah also loves giant, inflatable snow globes.

Back at home, there were pumpkins to carve. We go for the traditional pumpkin face, nothing fancy.  Andrew added ears this year. Luckily, the weather was cool so our pumpkin made it to Halloween before getting moldy and gross.

The kids were excited about trick-or-treating, so we loaded up the car to hit up the full-size candy bars that NKB and LS were passing out. Andrew and Taylor trick-or-treated back to our house while Noah and I went straight home to pass out candy. .

 

Noah waited and waited, but we didn’t have many visitors this year. We called it a night. 

Even superheroes need to sleep

Nitro Noah

The day began with Agnes explaining, to a jealous older brother, the reason why we had a box full of t-shirts bearing Noah's Step Up for Down Syndrome team name and did not have an equally large box containing shirts displaying the name of a team with Andrew in the title. Agnes explained that Noah gets a team because we are going to a party that celebrates Noah and people like him that have Down Syndrome. Andrew listened, paused for a moment and then proclaimed loudly that it wasn't fair and he wanted to have Down Syndrome also so that he could have a team. We tried to tell him that it is something you're born with, but he would hear none of it because he was too angry at the injustice of it all. Later, as we arrived at the event bathed in generous amounts of sunshine and moderate temps, Andrew's hurt feelings were assuaged with hot dogs, ice cream sandwiches and bouncy houses.

We, of course, had loads of family and friends out to support Noah. We had promised everyone that Noah would be walking with his team this year. As per usual, he had other plans and was only happy while being pulled around in his wagon.

Although the day began with Andrew being jealous that the attention was focused on Noah, he seemed to find plenty to do.

Hopefully next year Noah will have a better attitude and ditch the wagon.