Until that Halloween comes true

Halloween …it’s like an ongoing party for kids: dressing-up, candies, pumpkin farms, hayrides, spooky decorations… Well, for me, Halloween is just another reminder that here comes yet another event that my son will be completely oblivious of while all the kids around him jump with excitement and anticipation. But I don’t give up.

Every Fall, just like the previous ones, we take him to a pumpkin patch. Tell him what all the hoopla is about. He does not seem to be interested but we still drag him around, moving from one game booth to another, from the petting zoo to the pony rides, the talking pumpkin, and the corn maze…posing for pictures, smiling, and pretending that we are like the family standing next in the queue waiting to get their perfect fall family picture. The only thing he enjoys is the hayride. The open ride, with the crisp fall breeze brushing his face tickles his senses and he really enjoys that. However, the moment we reach the pumpkin patch, he leaves his excitement behind on that tractor and roams aimlessly, while a bunch of kids near him eagerly look around for the best pumpkin for themselves. We still make him pick a pumpkin and act like we know what we are doing. We don’t give up…we just don’t . You know why? Because one day, one fine day, he will walk to the most perfect pumpkin, point to it and say “mommy, I want that”.

Then comes the tedious process of selecting a costume. With my son having absolutely no interest in any character, living or animated, we really don’t have a clue what we are looking for except that it should be a simple costume. No hats, no masks, no jewelry or props of any kind…no nothing. Just a shirt and a pant but that should look like a costume. Yes, I know, we have our work cut out for us but so far we’ve managed to find something every year. This year while we were browsing for a costume, a 12 something yr old boy put a mask on his face, held a “bloody sword” and tried to play “scare” with my son. I saw my son actually notice him, shriek with  “joyous fear” and then hide behind a pillar and peek again for that boy, inviting him to play with him again– miracle! They did this for maybe 30 secs to a minute but what a wonderful few seconds they were! Who knew we could find precious moments standing between the aisles of a Halloween city. So, we don’t give up. You know why? Because, just like this year, a lot might happen between two rows of superhero costumes that would amaze us.

My son cannot eat candies and gummies. He is still learning to chew. But just like every year, we are going to get a big bag of candies, light our front porch with jack-o-lantern, throw in a good measure of bats and witches decals and wait for the kids, hoping that Vedant might find a friend in one. And then we will go out and collect candies. So what if my son cannot have them…or will have no idea why his mom and dad are taking him out in the cold dark night, one home to another collecting candies. We won’t give up. You know why? Because maybe one Halloween we would stand at our doorstep and watch our son collect candies with his own group of friends while we gloat in the pride of how far he has come.

No matter how indifferent our son is to the world around him, we would keep trying. We would  take him to Fall festivals, carve out pumpkins, fuss over his costumes, buy candies, and keep celebrating every single festival . We won’t give up because we are the window to the world for our son. He will remember the world that we show him, the life we give him… and one day he will show us that it was all worth it. One day.