Trick Or Treating With Autism

Parenting a child with autism is always an adventure, it's kind of like riding a roller coaster with a blindfold on. You can't anticipate the ups, downs or twists, so you have to just go with it. The town my parents live in has a really cute, quaint little downtown area, lots of old buildings, with little storefront shops, and every year for Halloween they shut down the streets, the merchants all dress up in costume and give out candy. They have firetrucks and police cars out for the kids to look at, music, a magician, and it's a nice safe place to trick of treat. I've taken Wy there every year and he loves it. But not for the reasons you'd think. See, kids with autism have their own unique way of looking at the world. What you or I would think is really cool doesn't interest them, but the things we'd ignore fascinate them. Like the magician. His name was Captain Jack, he was dressed up as a pirate, complete with wooden leg (He'd lost his leg in a motorcycle accident) He was terrific, did some amazing tricks that Wy couldn't have cared less about. Wy was really into the wooden leg! Wy went up to him, and started patting his wooden leg, and hugged him and told him he had a very pretty leg, which cracked Captain Jack up, and earned Wy a fistfull of candy. Then there was the traffic light at the 4 way intersection. Wy spent 15 min just jumping up and down, laughing and dancing every time the light changed. It was really sweet how happy that light made him. A very nice police officer came over, and was trying to get Wy to go get some more candy, and Wy sucked him into watching the lights too, they were holding hands and jumping up and down together, it was hilarious. There were a couple of merchants there that dress up as Darth Vader, Boba Fet and Stormtroopers every year, and Wy was fascinated with their costumes. he went up to one of the stormtroopers and was stroking the plastic on his arms and then he touched the crotch on the costume. I've never seen a grown man jump back so fast in my life! Honestly, I thought I was going to pee my pants I was laughing so hard.I told the poor guy it was ok, Wy's got no concept of personal space, and Wy gave him a big hug. That's the thing about Wy, he's just really lovable. There's something really wide eyed, innocent, and magical about him that brings out the protective side of people.