Twickn Tweet.....FINALLY!

I am a little backed up on my blogs, so bear with me in December as you read about October...

Every Halloween we do the same thing....we close up our house and head over to my parents neighborhood. It is a kid-friendly, well-lit neighborhood with plenty of Trick-or-Treaters running around with their plastic pumpkins filled with candy. Living in North Dakota, we have lucked out the past few years with the weather and although chilly, have not had to Trick-or-Treat in the snow. (Don't laugh, it has happened)

Emily was diagnosed in the Spring of 2008. That Halloween was a hard one. Our two boys eagerly got into their costumes and grabbed their pumpkins, anticipating filling it to the brim with goodies. Emily, at 2 years old, wanted nothing to do with it - she didn't even understand what was going on. At that point, she had no eye contact and could only communicate by shrieking and grunting. When we got to Grama & Gramps, the boys jumped out to score their first handful of candy from them while we got Emily out. We watched sadly and with jealousy as the other parents walked hand in hand with their toddlers dressed in adorable costumes and we put ours in a stroller. Our hearts sank as they rang my parents doorbell and they said in little squeaky voices, "Twick or Tweat!" while we tried to stop ours from screaming and shrieking. We followed the boys from house to house while we waited on the sidewalk by the stroller, rocking it back and forth because if we stopped the motion, Emily would shriek. I felt like I had an infant, not a toddler in my stroller, and as I gave her a bottle to calm her down, I cried cold tears. When we got home, my boys ate until their tummies hurt, and I cried myself to sleep.

The next Halloween, I wandered through the girls costumes and selfishly bought a Snow White costume for Em....just in case. The days leading up to Halloween, I brought out the Snow White dress for Em, and much to my surprise, she wanted to put it on! My heart exploded with joy and big, fat happy tears rolled down my face as she ran to the mirror to spin around to look at herself. The day rolled around, and this time, my oldest son was "too cool" to Trick-or-Treat, but Ben couldn't wait. I got Emily in her costume and we traveled to Grama's. We had some apprehension, Emily was too big for a stroller, so she would have to walk. This could be a disaster. This was one of the first of many times where Emily blew us out of the water. She not only walked next to us without running and bolting away, but she followed Ben up to the houses! Quickly, I whipped out the extra pumpkin I had brought in vain for her to carry! By this time, Emily had learned to enunicate a bit, and we were just starting to teach her a few words in sign language, so through tears and unbridled joy I heard her say, "Tandy" and as she signed, "Peese". SERIOUSLY! DID SHE JUST DO THAT? Then next house, "Tandy, peese" NO WAY! ...now we did have a few bumps - she blew out everyones Jack-O-Lanterns, traded candy with the people handing it out and ran into a few peoples houses, but all in all.....what a difference a year makes.

This year, we knew it was going to be a good year. She loves Jessie from Toy Story and had been wearing her costume for weeks now (non-stop I might add), but I still didn't know if she really UNDERSTOOD what exactly Halloween was. Again, to Grama's. She got out of the car and didn't even have to follow her brother....door after door, she ran up to them, rang the bell, held out her pumpkin, and this year from her lips, "Twickn Tweet" She got her candy, signed AND said "Thank you" and off she was again. The smile on her face and the twinkle in her eyes as she galloped across the yards made me realize...She gets it. She knows. I exhale.
....People cry at different holidays for different reasons, but I don't see many moms sobbing on sidewalk corners during Halloween like I did this year. I reflected over the past Halloweens and how far Emily has come in these past few years, what she has accomplished, how she has grown. My heart bursts with pride and joy over my daughter, my family, myself.
Halloween has become a sort of judgement day, a marker for Emily's progess, and I look forward to what the next one will bring. I'll bet she blows us away again.