It's A Very Diabetic Halloween, Charlie Brown!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! *evil laugh, duh* 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Less pressure than Thanksgiving and Christmas plus spookiness, gore, campy horror movies, and costumes. 

So what's not to love?

Well, this year it's all the candy. Needless to say, Trick or Treating wont ever be the same again for Ryan. No longer can he pick through his loot and immediately gobble down whatever sugary goodness he has collected from our neighbors. 

When he was diagnosed at the beginning of September, I have to admit that Halloween didn't even cross my mind...And I plan for October 31st early.  Thankfully, I have a couple of lovely Facebook friends that messaged me some really great ideas to make the holiday fun for him and still keep his blood sugar in check. 

One idea was delivering a letter to houses you plan on visiting and letting them know that your child is diabetic. Attached to the letter is a small toy like a match box car, some vampire teeth, or temporary tattoos...that kind of thing. The letter asks the home owner to give the diabetic child the toy instead of candy and describes what  he/she will have on for a costume. 

While this idea is brilliant, it didn't work for our situation since our neighborhood has so many houses and because kids come from all over the city to Trick or Treat around here. It is well known for being a safe location and the streets are flooded with people. I didn't want to add any extra trouble for our neighbors, not that they would have minded, most likely. But also to be quite honest I didn't feel like putting in the time or effort to get toys, print out letters, and deliver them. I'm lazy and socially awkward. Those are my reasons and I'm sticking to them. Nobody's perfect. 

If your neighborhood is smaller and you actually know those that live around you then this would be a perfect idea for you and your diabetic child. 

Another idea that was given to me was the Halloween Fairy. This one struck me right in the part of my soul that loves magic and lying to my kid. HAHAHA-kidding about the last part...mostly ;) 

It's really a very simple idea. Instead of eating all that junk, you let your child pick a few pieces that he really wants to keep and the rest goes into a bucket for the Halloween Fairy. 

At night, after the child has gone to bed, the fairy visits your home and trades the candy for a special gift. It has to be something better than a pile of candy so don't be stingy about it, parents. You don't have to spend a lot but make it something that your child will really enjoy. 

That's it. When your kid wakes up the next morning he has a present from the Halloween Fairy and the candy has either been hidden (very well), given away, or thrown in the trash. 

If you have a child that really, REALLY loves candy just remind him that the more candy he leaves for the fairy, the better his gift will be. 

This is actually a good idea for any kid, not just a diabetic child. Everyone knows the fun part about Halloween is dressing up and Trick or Treating. No kid needs ALL the candy that comes from a large haul on Halloween night. And if you are like most parents you really don't want to deal with the hyperactive aftermath of all that sugar anyway. 

I got Ryan a little nerf gun ('Merica) with extra ammo (Yee-Haw) and my mom got him a DVD of Monsters University. This more than makes up for a bunch of candy. 

Another disturbance in the force this year was Ryan's classroom Halloween "party" which, I've been told, isn't actually a party but more of an extended snack time. I got a note last week from his teacher asking for cookies, cupcakes, goody bags, etc for Halloween day. 

My heart sank a little. I really didn't know what I was going to do. So far I have been able to play bait and switch with a lot of activities at school that involve things he can't eat. But this is the first holiday party (I'm calling it a party, folks...deal with it). 

Ultimately I decided that the best idea would be to check him out of school. I didn't lie about the party to him. I let him know what would be going on and he did get a little upset that he had to miss out. There were tears and that hurt to watch...a lot. 

I asked him if he would rather stay at school and not be able to eat the snacks or if he would like to leave school with me and go do something extra fun.  Eventually, he agreed that getting out of nap time would be far better than staying and watching other kids eat pure sugar. 

So instead of the classroom party I checked him out before lunchtime and we went to Chick-Fil-A. He got to play on the inside playground with some other kids. He pretended he was a zombie and soon all the kids inside the play area were stumbling around with their arms outstretched. It was like an honest to goodness infectious outbreak. I loved watching him play even though some of the other moms kept shooting me looks because now their Precious Wittle Babies were moaning, drooling, walking dead. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...next step...world domination. 

After that we went to the book store and I let him pick out a couple new books. Ninja Turtles and Doc McStuffins if any of you are curious. He also got a photo with Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty.

I think it was a successful day. He kept asking me what the kids in his class were doing right at that moment and I would say, "Probably taking a nap."

 Then he would do his own evil laugh.