Trick or Treat...anyone got an Epi-pen?

         

 Buzz Light Year was woken up from his nap to go outside ....and the velcro from his hat rubbed his chin.   Life is hard sometimes.  And his wings kept falling off.

                                    Not off to a great start on his first time  "trick or treating."

Once he got  to the first house and was handed his first package of sugary goodness the world was a better place.

                        I think Cece is a little turtle off of Nemo.

                                  This little lady bug isn't one of mine but I had to show her off because

she is about as cute as it gets. 

             We had a nice time walking around our tiny village with some good friends of ours.

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween but I fine with claiming it as a few hours of community and family fun.  We don't "celebrate"anything on this day.  Not anything that has to do with Halloween anyway.   We don't celebrate darkness, we don't make death into something scary and goolish.  There is a lot that goes along with this day that I endure, cringe, turn the channel,  and choose not to participate in but at the same time we aren't condemning  finger pointers that hole ourselves up in our house marking this day as "Satan's birthday".
   "This is the day that the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it" so I will dress my child up like Buzz Light Year so we can go greet , wave, and smile at everyone in our community.    We live in this culture, as bizarre as it sometimes is.  If we lived in a city or else where our tradition might be quite different.
We missed Halloween altogether last year because we were in Mexico...and none of us missed it one bit.

The kids came home with a bag of loot each.  I quickly sorted through it all removing anything with peanuts and other nuts (all the good stuff).   When you have a kid with severe allergies everything gets a little more complicated.   We haven't been hyper vigilant because we've been really lucky for the last year.  It's  too easy to get lazy.   There is  just so much grey area.  There are the "safe" "Nut -free  candies on one end of the spectrum .  There are peanut M&M's on the other dangerous end.   In between are lots of candy that don't overtly contain nuts but may be contaminated (the "may contain" catagory)...and the fact that they are all in a bag together may make it nearly impossible.   Some people's threshold of sensitivity is much higher than others.    Some kids will swell up like a blow fish just being in the same room as a peanut...while others may tolerate trace amounts but would die if they ate a Reeces pieces.   We may have to rethink this trick or treating thing next year.   
He wolfed down two candies (a gummy hamburger and a foil covered chocolate ball) while I warned him about peanuts and cleaned the danger out of his bag.  Part way through the gummy hamburger he started drooling and cried "YUCKY".   He ran to spit it out and then proceeded to act like he was choking.  As he gagged and drooled I didn't know if he was being dramatic, choking or having a reaction.   His last allergic reaction (to musty Canola seed) actually caused him to vomit.    I gave him some water and watched him for a few seconds.   He then started crying "I need medicine!".  This boy is getting smarter than his mama when it comes to his allergies.   I gave him a good dose of Benadryl and made a mental note of where his epi-pen was.  

 Poor boy started to look rough.   His eyes didn't swell and he didn't get the welts all over that he sometimes gets.  I think they got itchy though.

Not feeling so good. 

                                                               Mommy...my lips feel funny,

Fortunately it was just a minor reaction and he was fine after about 1/2 an hour.  Needless to say I put away the rest of the Candy.
He is already at the age that he is figuring out what he is allergic to and routinely asks if something contains "peanut" or "cinnamon" or  "eggs".   It's kind of cute.  My poor little freak show.  It's a tough concept for a 3 year old.   Certain foods are poison to him but everyone else can eat them. He's at the age though where he remembers how bad it feels and is almost paranoid about eating something dangerous.    I think he thinks it's because he is small....that when "I'm big like Roman I can eat peanuts".  
His big brother and sister where more than eager to throw away their dangerous loot as well.