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Children with special needs now have more options for Halloween costumes, and it's magnificent!

Children with special needs now have more options for Halloween costumes, and it's magnificent!
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Often, parents of children with special needs struggle to find Halloween costumes that will accommodate medical equipment or provide a proper fit. And figuring out how to make one? Yikes.

There's good news; shopDisney has added new ensembles to their already impressive line of adaptive play costumes. And from 8/30 - 9/26, there's a 20% off sale for all costume and costume accessory orders of $75+ with code Spooky.

When looking for the right costume, kids with unique needs have a lot of extra factors to consider: wheelchair wheels get tangled up in too-long material, feeding tubes could get twisted the wrong way, and children with sensory processing disorders struggle with the wrong kind of fabric, seams, or tags. There are a lot of different obstacles that can come between a kid and the ability to wear the costume of their choice, which is why it's so awesome that more and more companies are recognizing the need for inclusive creations that make it easy for everyone to enjoy the magic of make-believe.

Created with inclusivity in mind, the adaptive line is designed to discreetly accommodate tubes or wires from the front or the back, with lots of stretch, extra length and roomier cut, and self-stick fabric closures to make getting dressed hassle-free. The online shop provides details on sizing and breaks down the magical elements of each outfit and accessory, taking the guesswork out of selecting the perfect costume for the whole family.

Your child will be able to defeat Emperor Zurg in comfort with the Buzz Lightyear costume featuring a discreet flap opening at the front for easy tube access, with self-stick fabric closure. There is also an opening at the rear for wheelchair-friendly wear, and longer-length inseams to accommodate seated guests. To infinity and beyond!

An added bonus: many of the costumes offer a coordinating wheelchair cover set to add a major boost of fun. Kids can give their ride a total makeover—all covers are made to fit standard size chairs with 24" wheels—to transform it into anything from The Mandalorian's Razor Crest ship to Cinderella's Coach. Some options even come equipped with sounds and lights!

From babies to adults and adaptive to the group, shopDisney's expansive variety of Halloween costumes and accessories are inclusive of all.

Don't forget about your furry companions! Everyone loves to see a costumed pet trotting around, regardless of the occasion. You can literally dress your four-legged friend to look like Sven from Frozen, which might not sound like something you need in your life but...you totally do. CUTENESS OVERLOAD.

This year has been tough for everyone, so when a child gets that look of unfettered joy that comes from finally getting to wear the costume of their dreams, it's extra rewarding. Don't wait until the last minute to start looking for the right ensemble!


*Upworthy may earn a portion of sales revenue from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.

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Joy

5 things that made us smile this week

The animal edition!

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Been stressed this week? Who hasn’t. That’s why we’re bringing you the latest in good news—five animal-themed stories we guarantee will put a smile on your face.

This week, we’re celebrating:

The most entertaining animal photos you've ever seen

Jason Moore/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2023 and © Tzahi Finkelstein /Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2023

Need a laugh? How about a dozen laughs? Look no further than the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, a competition started in 2015 that focuses on the lighter side of wildlife photography. More than 1,800 photographers from around the world submitted photos, and the finalists—from a kangaroo playing air guitar to an arguing set of greenfinches—will absolutely make your day.

Healthier, happier, rescued pets

Hundreds of thousands of pets are relinquished to shelters each year, and many vulnerable pet populations—such as disabled and elderly dogs—can be hard to place in loving homes. Fortunately, Subaru has sponsored the rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption of more than 134,000 of these pets through the Subaru Share the Love® Event. As the largest corporate donor to the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), Subaru and its retailers are donating a minimum of $300 to charities like the ASPCA for every new Subaru purchase or lease during the 2024 Subaru Share the Love Event, happening now through January 2, 2025.

This animal-centric (and adorable) creative writing assignment 

Amy McKinney, a third-grade teacher in Pennsylvania, recently had a genius idea for teaching her class persuasive writing: Rather than have them formulate an argument for an imagined audience (boring!), McKinney partnered with a local animal shelter and had her class write persuasive descriptions of each animal to help them get adopted. Each student chose a pet to write about and sent their essays to the shelter to display and post to the shelter’s social media channels. Student engagement was “tremendous,” said McKinney, and there’s no doubt these persuasive paragraphs made a huge difference in these shelter pet’s lives. Adorable.

The dog who saved his owner with CPR (yes, really)

Dogs have made the news for saving humans before, but have you ever heard of a dog performing CPR? That’s exactly what Bear, a Siberian Husky-Golden Retriever mix, did in 2022 when he found his owner unconscious on the floor after suffering a major heart attack. Not only was Bear able to quickly call for help, he even jumped on his owner’s chest repeatedly while someone else called the paramedics. Thanks to Bear, the owner survived what should have been a fatal heart attack. Now that deserves some head scritches.

Bee populations have reached a record high

macro shot photography of beePhoto by Jenna Lee on Unsplash

Honeybees are essential to the planet, as they pollinate over 130 types of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. For years, honeybee numbers have been in decline—but happily, that’s starting to change. The US has added almost a million bee colonies in the past five years, with more than 3.8 million honeybees in total.

For more ways to smile, check out how Subaru is sharing the love this holiday season.

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Man attempts to rescue stray kitten and quickly discovers he got more than he bargained for

Here kitty, kitty! Oh wait, there are 12 more of you?

Photo by Dorothea OLDANI on Unsplash

It's kitten season!

Who can resist a sweet little kitten trying to cross the road? Even if you’re not a fan of cats, you’d likely stop for a baby animal in the street. That’s what happened to Robert Brantley of Louisiana. Brantley was on his way to work and spotted a tiny white and gray kitten trying to get across the street. Being a kind human, he stopped his car to bring the kitten to safety. But he got more than he bargained for, because as he was scooping up the little thing, several more kitty cat siblings came running out of the nearby grass.

In all, Brantley counted 13 kittens. Twelve more than he planned on caring for, but by the looks of his Instagram page, his family has taken their role of cat rescuers seriously. With kitten season being in full effect in these warmer months and pet surrenders remaining high since the return to work from the pandemic, Brantley taking on fostering 13 kittens is much needed. Humane societies across the country are reportedly full or even over capacity. My own local humane society currently has nearly 150 animals over its limit and is begging for foster families and adopters to help clear the shelter.

It’s not only humane societies that have reached or exceeded capacity. Animal rescues across the board are in dire need of people to take animals to make room for the inevitable drop off of puppies and kittens from the current litter season. Mating season, which subsequently turns into puppy and kitten season, starts in early spring and lasts throughout the summer. This inundates local shelters and rescues.

Some shelters, like my local humane society, are asking people who find litters of puppies or kittens to do exactly what Brantley is doing.

Foster them and attempt to adopt them out on their own. It looks like Brantley's wife decided to get these now cleaned up kitties in their Sunday best to have a photoshoot in her makeshift studio. One kitten sported a bow tie while the others climbed around the enclosure patiently awaiting their turn. It also seems Brantley himself is having fun with the situation—in one video he talks about what he packs to go on a marksmanship match and includes 13 kittens along with his tripod and toolkit.

In one of Brantley’s most recent updates, he says that two of the kittens, Michael Scott and Nala, have been adopted by a family in Alexandria, Louisiana. In the same update he informs his followers that one of the kittens still left to be adopted is currently on daily medication and the family is keeping up with check-ups for the rest of the furry crew.

Here’s hoping that all of these little guys get adopted out soon. And may more people take Brantley’s lead to foster the kittens or puppies they find if they have the means. This can also serve as a reminder to spay and neuter your pets and any strays you may be caring for outside of your home.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Reporter doing a story about a stolen dog catches the 'dog-napper' live on camera

Taking a bite out of crime.

via Cambridge Police Department/Twitter and Juliana Mazza/Twitter

Reporter Juliana Mazza catches dog thief.

There’s an old trope in movies and TV where a criminal will return to the scene of a crime shortly after it was committed. It’s a great way to create a sense of drama and to give an easy way for the heroes to catch the perpetrator, but does it happen in real life?

It doesn’t make much sense for a criminal to put themselves in a position to get caught, but neither does committing a crime in the first place.

If a criminal does return to the scene, it’s often so they can relive some of the sensations they felt while committing the crime.

Such was the case with alleged dog-napper Kyle Gariepy.

On Friday, May 7, 2021, the Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts reported that a 13-month-old German shorthaired pointer named “Titus” was stolen out of a parked vehicle.

The department released footage of the alleged dog-napper walking the dog over the Boston University bridge.

The next day, members of the local 7NEWS crew, including Juliana Mazza and photojournalist John Guice, posted up in the parking lot where the dog was stolen to report on the theft.

While the news crew was setting up, they noticed a man who looked like the person in the surveillance cam footage walking a dog that looked like Titus.

Guice walked over to the man, whose name is Kyle Gariepy, and struck up a conversation with him while the news team rolled the camera. Mazza then walked over and asked if she could pet the dog so she could surreptitiously see if he had a name tag.

When she found out the dog was Titus, she asked the man why he didn’t call the number on the tag and he said his phone was “broken.” This begged a follow-up question. It’s been a day, why haven’t you contacted the owner or the authorities?

Gariepy gave a very strange excuse for why he had the dog.

"He was just barking in the car, and I walked past the car, and I thought it was supposed to be a dog I was dog walking," Gariepy told the crew. "It wasn't a kidnapping. It was just a simple mistake."

Why in the world would someone ask him to walk a dog that was in a parked car?

Gariepy’s story didn’t add up, so the news crew called the police and Gariepy stood there and waited until they arrived. Gariepy was arrested and charged with larceny of more than $1,200, and breaking and entering into a vehicle to commit a felony.

Later, the police called Titus’ owner Greg Siesczkiewicz and asked him to come and pick up his dog.

"I'm thrilled to have Titus back. I think, he is thrilled to have me back," he told Inside Edition.

"I'm just glad that the person came back and I'm just glad that you guys were there," Siesczkiewicz told 7NEWS. "If anyone ever sees this who questions the value of media, social media, broadcast media, this proves it."


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Woman who was pressured to quit her job to raise stepdaughter's baby makes a bold decision

This sparked an important conversation about family responsibility.

via Pixabay

When parents can't step up, should grandparents step in?

A story that recently went viral on Reddit’s AITA forum asks an important question: What is a parent’s role in taking care of their grandchildren? The story is even further complicated because the woman at the center of the controversy is a stepparent.

At the time of writing her post, the woman, 38, met her husband Sam, 47, ten years ago, when his daughter, Leah, 25, was 15. The couple married five years ago after Leah had moved out to go to college.

Leah’s mom passed away when she was 10.

When Leah became pregnant she wanted to keep the baby, but her boyfriend didn’t. After the disagreement, the boyfriend broke up with her. This forced Leah to move back home because she couldn’t afford to be a single parent and live alone on a teacher’s salary.

Leah’s story is familiar to many young mothers facing similar difficulties.

The father isn’t involved in the baby’s life as a caretaker or financially. Sadly, research shows that 33% of all children in the U.S. are born without their biological fathers living in the home.

a young mother holds her baby

Single motherhood comes with unique hardships.

via Alexander Grey/Unsplash

The new mother is a teacher and can’t afford to live on her own with a child. In 2019, a study found that out the top 50 U.S. cities, Pittsburgh is the only one where a new teacher could afford rent.

Today, Portland, OR has joined the very short list of cities where an "average teacher can afford 91.3% of apartments within community distance of their school" according to a recent study.

The stressors of taking care of the baby made Leah realize she needed help.

“But once she had the baby around 4 months back, Leah seemed to realize having a baby is not the sunshine and rainbows she thought it was,” the woman wrote on Reddit. “She barely got any sleep during the last four months. All the while Sam was helping her with the baby while I did almost all chores myself.”

“Now her leave is ending. She did not want to leave the baby at daycare or with a nanny,” the woman continued. “Sam and I both work as well.”

Leah asked her stepmother if she would stay home with the baby. The stepmother said no because she never wanted to have a baby and she has a job. “I asked why Leah can't stay home with the baby herself,” the woman wrote. “She said how she was young and had to build a career. I said many people take breaks to raise kids, and she broke down crying about how she was so tired all the time being a mom and needed something else in her life too.”

A woman holds a newborn baby.

The demands of new motherhood are usually all-encompassing.

via Pixabay

After the woman told her stepdaughter no, her husband pressured her to stay home with the baby. But she refused to give up her job to raise her stepdaughter’s child. “Leah said yesterday how she wished her mom was alive since she would have had her back. She said I didn't love her, and my husband is also mad at me,” the woman wrote. The woman asked the Reddit community if she was in the wrong for “refusing to help my stepdaughter with the baby,” and the community responded with rapturous support.

"[The woman] should tell her husband to knock it off and stop trying to pressure her into raising his daughter’s baby. If he wants a family member to look after her baby while she works, then he can do it," user Heavy_Sand5228 wrote.

"This is Leah's baby that she alone chose to have. That doesn't obligate you to change YOUR life to suit her desires. The whole business of saying you don't love her because you won't quit your job to watch her baby is manipulative and messed up, and I'm shocked your husband is siding with her," user SupremeCourtJust-a** added.

Leah and many women like her are in this situation because, in many places, teachers are underpaid, rent is high, and not all dads pay child support, even those required by law.

Another commenter noted that the baby is much more the father’s responsibility than the stepmother's. "To add, Leah should consider seeking child support from her ex. Her kid should be getting that money," Obiterdicta wrote.

While there are resources to help stepparents connect with their stepchildren and step-grandchildren, it's important to remember that the responsibility to raise a child ultimately rests with the parent(s).

This article originally appeared last year.

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Equality

A boy with dwarfism struggled to get his lunch. So a cafeteria worker made him a souped-up cart.

He went from struggling to stylish.

via Beaverton School District

Julian Worsham gets a new cart.

Six-year-old Julian Worsham of Beaverton, Oregon is like a lot of other first-graders: he loves Super Mario and Taekwondo. But he has achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, and goes to a school that wasn't built for kids his height.

"He's born into a world that just, in some ways, is not built for him," Julian's father, Brett, told WHAS11.

His mother did a walk-through before his first day at school to make sure he wouldn't run into any problems because of his height but forgot to check the cafeteria. [We] "noticed that where the food was, was right at his head," Heather told the Beaverton School District. Then, to make things more of a struggle, he had to carry his tray outside to the lunch benches.

The school made him a makeshift cart out of an upside-down milk crate on wheels to help him transport his lunch from the cafeteria to the benches.

"When I saw it I thought, 'Wow,'" said Enedelia Mottram, who's served lunch for the school district for 18 years. "I just wanted to help Julian, because I mean his head barely reaches the lunch line. He can't see anything."

Julian's first cart wasn't cutting the mustard.

via Beaverton School District

That night, she talked to her husband, James, a metalworker, to see if he could come up with something better. He got his team together at Wright Manufacturing in Portland to create a new cart that allowed Julian to transport his lunch tray and see over the counter.

James told the Beaverton School District that he wanted to make something that Julian would be "proud to push around."

James and his team put together a badass cart with adjustable, handlebar grips just like a motorcycle that has a stool inside so he can reach the countertop. It is adorned with flames and a personalized license plate that says, "JULIAN."

Julian's parents were blown away by the care and creativity that was put into creating his cart.

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"They took the time to get those license plates with his name, which is just like, they just really put a lot of heart into it. So when I saw it, the first thing I saw was actually a picture of James and his team who made the cart and I cried. It's just such a sweet thing," Heather said.

Julian loves the license plate and the flames and is now able to grab his lunch and get out to the benches in style.

"He's independent now," said Mottram. "Before, a staff member [would] have to be there to help him," she said.

Heather hopes that the story will inspire others to reach out and help other people in need.

"There's just wonderful people in this world that, you know, they have their eyes open. They're seeing needs that need to be met and they're meeting them. So I hope that other kids can get their needs met through this," she said.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Golden Retriever with peak good boy energy can't stop snuggling with strangers on a train

Can't stop, won't stop.

Photo by Andrew Spencer on Unsplash

Golden Retrievers are the ultimate good doggos.

If there's any dog breed that encapsulates "good doggo" energy, it's the Golden Retriever. Friendly, gentle, good-natured and oh-so-affectionate, Goldens have come by their reputation honestly. Even "I'm not a dog person" people tend to find themselves taken by Golden Retrievers, and a post on TikTok demonstrates why. The video shared by @hugoandursula is captioned "my dog getting cuddles from strangers on the train," and that's exactly what it shows in the most adorable montage ever.

In clip after clip, the sweet pup snuggles into unsuspecting train passengers, winning hearts and evoking "awwwws" left and right. (If you're on the fence about getting a dog, be careful watching this video because it will catapult you right over the edge.)

@hugoandursula

Melts my heart 🥰🥰🥰🥰 #goldenretriever

The video has been shared multiple times since it was first posted in January of 2023, and every time, people can't get enough of it. In March of 2024, it was posted in the r/mademesmile subreddit, and people poured all the Golden Retriever love into the comments.

"Golden's love attention.. our Daisy would politely walk around the benches at softball and stop for anyone who expressed an interest in petting her. She was never rude, just wanted to meet new people and show some love while getting some." – michaeldpj

"They are the most 'hi i’m in the room look at me i'm here' dogs i’ve ever met." – botjstn

"I would ride in trains much more often if I was guaranteed to see an adorably squashed doggy nose in front of me. It's delightful." – Designer-Command1417

"The look on the woman's face when the dog snuggles up her is worth a billion dollars!" – Ok-Sale-8105

Reddit users were also thrilled when a "Schnoodle" appeared in the comments. A Schnoodle on social media is a cheesily heartwarming poem from u/schnoodledoodledo, written from the point-of-view of an animal, and the Schnoodle for our Golden train-riding friend here is perfectly fitting.

Look at me - the Traveler! i get to come along

being with my human is the place that i belong ;@)

am friendly with the passengers, n try n spread the JoY!

(they’re frens i haven’t met yet,

n they tell me i’m Good Boy)

so i will find an empty seat, n sit with them awhile

i get aLot of scritches, n i leave them with a smile

am tired from the journey, but i know i did my part

to leave a golden memory

inside their human heart

"FRESHEST SCHNOODLE!!" wrote one commenter, followed by "OMG a schnoodle!! I haven’t seen one in over a year. I thought they had disappeared! This has made my day!" and "Starting the day with a fresh schnoodle for brunch is highly recommended!!!"

For an extended version of one of these good doggo love fests, check out another video from @hugoandursula:

@hugoandursula

Hux making more friends..🥺💕

Again, so much love in the comments.

"Are you telling me a stranger got on the train and received all this love for free?!?!" – kirstygu

"I don’t care where that train is going I’m buying a ticket 🥺" – Angharad

"Did he cry before parting ways? I would be bawling" – Melanin. Queen

"I've never been more jealous of a person before in my life." – Carrie Thompson

One thing's for certain—if the train system wants to encourage more riders, all they need to do is get a Golden Retriever to welcome their passengers. They'd fill up those seats in no time.


This article originally appeared in March.

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