Nikko in costume

Nikko was agreeable this morning when I put on his ninja turtle costume on. However, he was getting annoyed with one sleeve and pulling at it so I had to put on his fleece jacket over it before he tore it off. At the bus stop the twins were dressed for the occasion; the girl was a ladybug and the boy was a shark. Very cute! When I got Nikko later, he had a bag full of non-sweet treats, including some Play-Doh (I gave the teachers a bunch to give away, Nikko got some back), stickers, pencils, a plastic slinky, $1 gift certificates to Wendy's and McD's, and coloring books. Very good ideas. The twins' mom had went to the school to videotape her kids in the Halloween parade and she showed me the video, which captured my Nikko walking in the gym as well. She didn't know when her kids would appear so she taped any kids walking in. Nikko was the last in line, Mrs. Napoleon walking next to him, and he had his hands covering his ears the entire time. I guess there was music playing and it was probably nice and loud. Later in the evening Atz would tell me her story of her experience seeing her daughter's school costume parade. She noticed that the special needs kids walked in last, she saw the kids in wheelchairs, then the other kids like the ones with autism, and they had their hands covering their ears, too. Kinda funny that it seemed to be a trademark, and that my own Nikko did that as well.

Nikko didn't show much interest in eating nuggets and grapes again, so in desperation I put in a cheese pizza. Bingo! He ate 3 slices and signed More Pizza each time, with a smile. I geared up our belongings so that we could head over to mom's house in the mid-afternoon, but spent perhaps 15 or 20 minutes putting in Audrey's convertible car seat between Nikko and Ronin. When I put her in and turned to face her from the driver's seat, she looked at me with a huge grin as if to say, "HEY, this is what it looks like riding face-forward!" The boys ended up napping first, then Audrey soon followed. At mom's house, the boys played with the cache of cars I brought as well as watched a bit of TV when there weren't any Filipino soap operas on the screen. The sibs soon came with their kids, and I put the costumes on the kids so everyone could see each other. Nikko wore his costume again comfortably, but wouldn't wear the "shell" cape or the mask, just as I anticipated. Ronin refused to wear the Superman cape. Audrey was the only one game, wearing a pig costume borrowed from Anna. Nikko didn't seem overly excited or frazzled when all the kids showed up and were milling about. He seemed to flow between everyone. I was also able to go from one room to another without him looking for me, but he was clingy on his own terms. Dinner went smoothly for Nikko. He ate Lou Malnati's cheese pizza, sitting next to me. He didn't go too crazy on the cake, and when I was giving the Penepacker girls Halloween candy I had brought some Dum Dum lollipops for my boys. That kept Nikko from looking for something else to chow down. We got home later than usual, but probably a normal time for a Friday night family outing. Tomorrow we have flu shots on the agenda in the mid-afternoon, then we'll go home and assess the trick-or-treating situation. Ronin and Audrey had developed some hacking coughs today, but didn't have any temps or fevers. I'm keeping an eye on it, because it could develop into something nasty. Audrey had some slightly drippy nose today, but that could have been her residual tired cries and tears. Ronin's cough has me worried, as usual, so I'll see where we go with him.

I'm writing down words from our daily routine that Linda Hoeck will be able to laminate for PECS and for a picture schedule. I have a few from before, but I think starting from scratch will be fine with me. I should email this list to them before Monday morning.