Say BOO! to Diabetes

Happy Halloween!

We are eagerly awaiting Trick or Treat this evening!  

Yes, my child has diabetes and Yes, she DOES go trick or treating!

I am determined that diabetes will NOT take the fun from life.  And that includes Halloween.  

I was worried about it at first.  In fact, I remember thinking about it in the car on the way to the hospital the day she was diagnosed... "How in the world are we going to do Halloween?"  WHY I was worried about that, I don't know.  But your mind goes to weird places that day.

I shouldn't have worried.

Here is how we celebrate Halloween at our house....

We DO get costumes.  This year, Sweetpea is dressing up as a puppy.  She also dressed up like Cinderella for the Halloween party last night.  

 This is Sweetpea and me before the party...

We DO carve pumpkins!

We DO go Trick or Treating!  We go from house to house just like everyone  else!

What do we do with the loot?

The way we handle it is that Sweetpea does not eat candy during Trick or Treating.  I wouldn't let her do this even if she did not have D.  When she gets home, we sort through it.  We keep the Smarties and the Starburst (red only) for lows.  Sweetpea gets to choose a few things to keep - she like m&m's and Tootsie Rolls.  She can have one or two things that night.  The rest she "sells" to me.  I take it to school and put it into my prize box for the kiddos there.  She gets $$ and she can go to buy something.  

The kid really makes out on this deal... This year she got money from BOTH sets of Grandparents.  So add that to her Tick or Treat money and she's going to do well at Target!

There is no set amount we give her... This works for us right now.  We just let her pick a toy that isn't too expensive.  Say $10 - $20.  It's worth it to us to help her have fun celebrating this holiday.

I REALLY liked the idea of the "Switch Witch" that I read on another blog.  I think we may try that this year.  We will leave out the candy and during the night the "Switch Witch" comes and takes the candy and leave a toy in it's place!  LOVE THIS!

And really....  I think this would be a great idea even without D.  No kid needs to gorge on candy.  No adult does either.  Get it out of the house!  

So that's how we are celebrating... 

We will ENJOY this day!

We will PARTICIPATE in this day!

We will do the things that everyone else does - just with our own spin.

Diabetes will NOT win.  It will NOT take this away.  I won't let it.

Here's a little video I shot during pumpkin carving... 

Sweetpea asked me to video her.  And she just started talking about diabetes, so I thought I'd share!

I wish you all a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN and hope that you, too, say BOO to diabetes!