Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We had such a nice time trick-or-treating with Emerson--much better than I had hoped. He was a lion this year and the first time we put the costume on him, he cried--kicking and screaming, of course--until I took the thing off. I thought, oh Lord, this should make Halloween night real fun! But guess what? I started putting it on him and all he said was "roar, roar." The only fussing he did was when i was trying to hold him still to draw his nose and whiskers on (with Mama's eyeliner because I forgot to buy face paint!)

He really enjoyed going out trick-or-treating. Actually, what I think he enjoyed was running around waving the little pumpkin flashlight my co-worker gave him. He wasn't afraid of any of the other Halloweeners--even the ones in the scary masks! We only stayed out for about an hour and a half, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

Emerson also had his Halloween party at daycare today. I was even able to leave work to attend. It was a hoot watching all those kids go nuts about their snacks (ever see what unlimited cookies, cupcakes, Cheetos and juice does to 17 toddlers?) He was a mess! And forget dinner! he was definitely NOT interested in eating again that night!!

My Poor Baby

You all need to feel sorry for my poor little boy today. Why? I'll tell you...

Emerson had his 18-month well-baby check-up this morning. After the check up, the doctor told me we had to go to the hospital and have lab work done to check for iron definciency and lead content in he blood. I had no idea that we had to have this done at this visit--she hadn't mentioned a word of it at his 15-month check-up--so I hadn't brought any Tylenol or Motrin with me. I thought I was doing good by remembering an extra diaper, some snacks, and a few of his books. (Our doctor is notorious for keeping her appointments waiting. We were her first appointment of the day, and she was 15 minutes late for that! How can you be behind before you've even had any appointments???!!)

Anyway, off to the hospital we went. We got called into a room where they had me hold Emerson's body still by laying my chest over him, while a nurse held his arm out and another nurse took the blood. To get to the point (because I'm known for rambling and I can see already that that's where I'm headed), he was stronger than they expected, and he twisted his arm when they stuck the needle in. They ended up tearing his arm a little where the needle had entered. Picture blood streaming down his arm ad onto the nurse's glove and then onto the table; Emerson screaming so much that his eyeballs are rolling back into his skull because he's about to pass out (he holds his breath when he's really upset and we haven't found anything to make him breath again until he's ready); a bruise forming where the blood from the damaged vein is pooling under his skin; Mama crying because her baby is crying so hard....oh my friends, it was not fun at all. After it was all over, one of the nurse's tried to give him a little treat, but he just threw it at her (rude, yes, but he's 18 months old...what do you expect?) He was fine by the time I got him back to daycare and had gone to buy some Motrin to give him. Thank God toddler's don't have very long memories!

In other news, I totally forgot to carve the pumpkin for Halloween tomorrow and I didn't especially feel like doing it tonight. Instead, I took Emerson's finger paints and a sponge brush and painted a little Halloween scene on it. We're not even going to be home, so I guess it doesn't matter except that I want pics of him with his Halloween pumpkin.

I also got his little goody bags ready for his daycare party tomorrow. We signed up to bring treat bags, and I did simple ones for that, but Emerson also wanted to give his little friends a treat. We bought special bags, some individual boxes of raisins, stickers, and I created fridge magnets by scrapping with some Halloween kits I had, printing them, gluing them onto some magnetic material, and cutting out holes to put a pic behind. They're 4x6" and the picture openings will fit a wallet sized pic. Each one has the child's name and "Halloween 2007" on it. I think they're cute. Here's the one I did for Emerson and a few of his little friends:

It didn't take me long to forget to post, did it? LOL Actually, we had quite a busy weekend. It was a wonderful weekend! Emerson and I had a playdate on Saturday with a friend who lives in the country. Oh, it was so nice and quiet! We rode around and saw some horses, a bull, lots of dogs and a pong complete with turtles. Emerson was quite impressed with all the trees and kept pointing them out to me. It was a beautiful day. Sunday we went to the park, and Emerson had lots of fun going down the slides, running around like a mad thing, and watching the ducks in the duck pond. (He called all the white ducks, "Fix-It Duck" because he has a book with the same name. Too cute) He only threw one fit--when I wouldn't let him continure running back and forth over the bridge--but considering his fits consist of lying silently on the ground looking up at me, well, have at it kiddo!

Needless to say, I did not have any time for designing. Well, I didn't have time to complete anything, anyway. I'm currently trying to figure out how to make gems in Photoshop. I found a tutorial, but I'm not real happy with the results. I got so frustrated with it that I gave up doing any computer work at all. Hopefully, I'll either figure out how to do a gem I can be satisfied with or I'll move on to something else! Either way, I'll try to get something posted for you all to look at and comment on soon. Oh yeah, and I think I'll look into the 4Share website to see if I can figure out how to start sharing some freebies. I don't know what kinds of freebies, but I've gotten so many great ones that I'd like to offer something back. Hope you all have a great week!