Happy Halloween!!!

I have a limited amount of time to post today...we've got gymnastics, naps and QT, Microsoft's Halloween party, and then home for Trick or Treating tonight...so I thought we could do a look back at Halloween through the years.

2005
My first Halloween as a mom, I actually made Easton's costume. Okay so I painted on a zig zag, cut off the sleeves, and used an iron on "hem":


Obviously he went as Charlie Brown and we went to ONE house and got an Almond Joy:




During the day we went to J's work party, but we'd stolen the Charlie Brown idea from one of his coworkers kids the year prior (when I was pregnant) and so Easton had to go as something else for that party. He was a bee...


2006
For Easton's 2nd Halloween, we let his interests guide the costume we chose. His favorite toy was most definitely his ride-on Thomas so we decided he could be a train conductor...only we couldn't find the overalls. We knew Osh Kosh made some because we saw them, just not in his size. So we had to get The Alabamaws to help us as they have an Osk Kosh outlet right near them and they sent the outfit over:








2007
Last year for Halloween, Easton got to go as his favorite character at the time: Buzz Lightyear!




We chose Superman for Dalton:



The Buzz costume was Junie's Matthew's. And Matthew was Superman as a baby so we copied that idea too!!!

However, on Halloween day the boys and I were in Texas with my mom and Lauren to visit Jessica. We had to fly home that day and poor Dalton wasn't feeling his best. He threw up just before we boarded the plane:




Easton was good to go, though:


Somehow Dalton recovered enough to brave Trick or Treating for the first time that night:


Good thing because Bubs was sooooo excited:


He's even more excited this year.

2008
You've already seen the boys' costumes for this year. And Jason is dressing up too. Easton has been asking and asking for Daddy to be Robin to his Batman. And Jason was thinking that he'd like to do that for Easton. So, tonight, Dick Grayson he'll be:


I painted it:



Eastie was postively giddy when he saw it this morning. He's also confused: Daddy is wearing a different costume to work today. He's some sort of Microsoft lobotomy patient/product:






Our excitement of the day--so far--has been finding Dalton in the sink several times:




The boys wearing their light up Halloween shirts and getting to eat Halloween sprinkle doughnuts for breakfast on their pumpkin plates:


My festiveness consists of this pumpkin shirt:

Oh, and festive socks too...can't forget the socks.

We had one of our more exciting trips to gymnastics this morning. Where to start? First Emily's mom (who we know from school) hobbles in on some crutches, then a little girl in the class had a pee pee accident on the mat. They cleaned up the puddle with Windex (???). Then as Easton was climbing onto the parallel bars I noticed she'd left moist footprints on her way out to her dad. Easton was probably stepping in those. Gross. I called their attention and their Windex to the area. Ick. I'm so lucky that I haven't YET had to deal with a public accident...Easton's leaking on Adam's monkey rug was as close as we got to a public situation, I think.

Anyway, after class Easton said, "I'm going to run with my friend Emily". Wanting to encourage him to have little buds we let them take off through the rec center and up the stairs. Man, they're speedy. Another kid from class (Dominic who we knew of from swimming AND soccer) joined them. Emily's dad took off after the kids and only found Easton and Emily looking out at the pool when he got up there. Dominic was gone...we weren't even sure he'd gone up the stairs with the other two. His dad did a casual search and then we all had to begin a more frantic search. I shouted to Emily's mom "Don't let Easton disappear!" as Dalton and I took off back downstairs on our hunt. And back upstairs and back down. It was all in the span of about 5-10 minutes and I finally asked an employee, "Okay...what do we do about a missing kid?" She came running up the stairs with me, as did Dominic's dad, and then Dominic was all of a sudden just standing there. Whew. I still have no idea where he went to begin with, I'm not sure any of us cared at that point. Just glad he was found. What a fright!

Easton and Emily just sat and watched Backyardigans on the rec center couch with Emily's mom. I was glad he didn't flip out about me not being right there with him. One woman must've seen me looking for a kid downstairs because some strange lady went and told Easton, "Your mom is looking for you". Emily's mom was like, "No...she's looking for a different kid." When they asked Emily where Dominic went off to she said, "Oh, he went home." Easton just said, "I don't know." Helpful. Anyway. All is well but that was quite the frightening start to our Halloween!

We came home for an orange lunch of mac and cheese in pumpkin bowls and then to attempt a nap for D which isn't happening. Maybe/hopefully he'll snooze a bit in the car during our drive up to the Microsoft party. Otherwise I fear he might not be in his best trick-or-treating mood later. We shall see.

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night! Stay safe!!!

Post 31 of 31 for

Trying...

So, I'm still not feeling 100% but I'm back on my game enough where Jason could go back to work today. But boy did he have fun with those boys while he was off. Just yesterday they started off with breakfast and playing at McDonald's followed by a short trip to the grocery store and then a short trip to the park. Apparently the weather was beautiful. I wouldn't know.

After naps and quiet time Jason took them to play at Chuck E. Cheese's for a bit:









Then they all came back and told me about their fun and Jason made us all dinner. Easton ate more food than we've seen him eat in a long time...was it because Daddy cooked? I tried not to take offense. :)

This morning Jason stayed home with us but that was always the plan as we had Easton's very first parent teacher conference today. First the boys and I made muffins:


Easton wanted to be sure we saved two for Grammy and Grandpa John who would be coming to stay with the boys while we went to school. Easton thought that was so cool. He was telling us what to expect with our school day (sit criss-cross legged, play on the playground, wear the necklace when you're in the bathroom, don't rock in the reading loft, what it means when we hear Mrs. M's music box). Then he told us both, "I know you'll do a great job!" and that if we didn't cry we could watch Batman. Ha!

My grandma arrived (no John) and proposed the park. Dalton figured out that we were gonna leave and he wasn't too happy about that but Grammy said it only lasted a minute and he was fine. Pretty good for not having seen her since May, eh? Easton did just perfect...apparently he even went to get Dalton his milk to cheer him up after we left. My Eastie has got one of the sweetest hearts. You should have seen him taking care of me when I was in bed the other day. There was nothing left for Jason to do! When I got home from the doctor Easton had a made me a beautiful "card"/project and it was taped up next to my bed.


Jason said he picked out each sticker very carefully...Jason got some foam shapes out and Easton said, "I only want the hearts". He wanted to find an elephant sticker because they're my favorite and lucky for me, they found one. He picked out lots of purple stuff, the blue squiggle going across the page is supposedly my name. He threw in some E's. All his choices were very deliberate and specific to make me feel better.

Then he told me I needed to get in bed ("for four weeks") and he tucked the covers under my chin, asked if I was comfy, then decided to add two extra pillows behind me. He said he needed to check my temperature and where was the thermometer? Jason reminded him he has a pretend one in his doctor kit so he rushed down to get it and put it in my mouth. I was "8". But E was far from done taking care of me. He then turned on the CD player in his room for some pleasant music. Tucked a soft friend (his Pablo) in next to me. He brought some of those Chuck E. Cheese sketches we get done and propped them on my night table so I'd be surrounded by the faces of those I love. Then he said, "Now I'll go make you some lunch". Jason and I exchanged a bit of an "Uh oh" look but he came back with a string cheese and a box of crackers for me. Perfect! He turned on "Little Bear" for me to watch and then I told him I was a little bit thirsty and could he please bring me a water bottle from the fridge? Apparently he had an even better idea: he climbed up and got a festive pumpkin water bottle instead, then he pushed a chair over to the sink (which made Jason sneak down to observe). Eastie then filled it up about 3/4 of the way looked inside and told himself, "That should do it", he screwed on the lid and put the cap on the straw before coming up. About halfway up the stairs J said he stopped and uncapped the straw so that it would be ready for me, I guess. It was the best water I'd ever had and I told him so. What a sweetie poo. And what a tangent! Sorry... all that to brag on what a great kid I have. There's even a tiny bit of video:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So, goodness...I guess him being sweet to his brother while he was sad is what brought that on? So yeah, Dalton got over it and Grammy pushed them in the double stroller to the park while Jason and I headed over to E's school. Mrs. M had lots of great things to say about Easton starting with how proud she is that he's starting to adjust to things or at least how he only cries a little but that he walks in willingly each time. We're all very proud of him for that! She showed us this coloring project he did:

I guess she gave it to him to sort of "grade" him on some of his fine motor-ish, pre-writing skills. She said he didn't want to do it at first and cried about it but once he started he wouldn't stop till he was done. Apparently it took him a long time because he was, like, the only kid in the class who colored every single object on the page. Most moved on after 2 or 3.

Then she showed us the front of his report card:

Those red scribbles are apparently what he did when she asked him to draw a picture of himself. I can tell you right now he was being very lazy with that. He has done much better in the past but you can't force "art", can you? She was saying how she could see a round head and some eyes (which she pointed out)...she's watching for when they start drawing the stick figures and stuff. He's not there yet.

She told us that Easton was very smart which I'm sure she says to all the parents but (since I'm in a "bragging on E" mood) also said that he is ahead of some of his classmates in several areas. What Mama wouldn't want to hear that? "Separating well from parents" is not his forte, however. But we all already knew that, didn't we? In fact...that was the first thing on the progress report:


When she got to the part about "takes care of personal needs independently" she told us that basically means the bathroom and stuff. Then she said what they notice he does is goes into the bathroom and cries. Almost like he thinks no one will know if he does it in there. My eyes most definitely welled up with tears when she told me that. She said they'll hear him in there and the assistant teacher Mrs. L will go to the door and ask if he's okay and he'll come out having pulled himself together. She said it doesn't sound like he's having trouble in there or anything, just that he goes in there because I think he thinks that he can't cry out in the open classroom so much so he goes and hides to do it. Isn't that the saddest thing you've heard all day? Totally breaking my heart...my boy already hiding his emotions because we've stressed so much how we want him to not cry at school. My poor sweet boy. :(

Also when she got to the part about "Challenges self" with his choice in work she said he does that and he's doing very well at math. I was like, "What??? Math???" and she said, "Yeah, I think he is" and pulled out her gradebook to make sure that what she was telling us was correct. She said he's ahead of a lot of his classmates in that regard (Go E!!!) and said that in addition (get it???...addition? math?!?! Ha ha ha!) to knowing all of his numerals (or maybe she said numerics? All I know is she didn't say NUMBERS) he also is doing some fancier math stuff that I don't exactly understand. She showed me how only a few students had marks next to their names for a few of those skills in the whole class and E's was one of them! I must've stopped paying complete attention while the Hallelujah Chorus played in my head because I just love hearing from a teacher that my boy is smart.

Then she went on to the next page of the report:

You may notice--because it was the first thing I noticed--that he doesn't have a "check" next to "Coloring" but has the polite "very nice start" comment next to it. Okay, after she seemingly raved about his above super-orange color page I had to ask..."what is he missing and what do we need to work on?" so that he could get that check next time! She told me, "Oh none of the kids are getting "checks" on Coloring." Whew! But she did tell us some things to work on but it's what we do already so I guess it'll just come in time, and with more exposure.

This was the last page:

Good to know that he's doing well in "Snack". :) She says he fits in well in the class and she's especially careful to observe them on the playground when they can really let loose and play with the others. No one is left out, they all have a nice time. It sounds like he's doing really really well. We're so proud of him! Even if he didn't get a single "check" we'd still obviously be so proud of him...he's ours! But it sure nice to have the reminders that he's doing what he's "supposed" to be doing, ya know?

Anyway, Jason and I parted ways after the conference...J went on to work and I came back home. The house was still empty as Grammy was still at the park with the boys but they came home after not too long. We ate some cookies Grammy brought and then she headed home. The boys and I goofed around for a bit:




And now they're both taking naps (I think).

We plan to go to the library later and we need to get some more Halloween candy. My Grammy brought me a ton of her coupons! Woo hooooooo! And I'm sure there's gonna be some candy stuff in there somewhere, right? I just hope the stores have stuff left! I'm cuttin' it a little close, eh?

Anyway, I should go but tune in tomorrow for a walk down Halloween memory lane. Buh bye!

Post 30 of 31 for

Checking In

Sorry, folks...I never did come back to do a "real" blog after my middle of the night blog, did I? But that's kinda how my bad day went and I had nothing good to blog about as I'm not exactly feeling my best.

Yesterday Jason took off to watch the boys while I went to the doctor and then to my dentist too. The good news is my temporary tooth looks a lot better than the last half-arsed version. But the bad news (for you blog visitors) is I still have nothing to really say. Jason is home with the boys and me again today to look after us. I hope to be back soon.

Post 29 of 31 for

ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!

It's 3:43 a.m.

My fake tooth just popped off again. I think I must've been grinding or clenching my teeth.

Now I can't go back to sleep. I'll try again in a bit.

I had to see when they open...it's at 7:00. GRRRRRRRRR.

I'll try to go back to sleep in a bit.

Post 28 of 31 for

Snaggletooth

I blogged so late last night covering our weekend that there's really not much to say today.

After the boys got up we headed out on our doughnut run...as I was biting into my 3rd soft, warm, Krispy Kreme I chomped down on something nastily crunchy. I quickly spit it out and wondered if it could've been my fake tooth.

It was.



I briefly considered leaving it for Halloween.

Not really.

Instead I waited till 10 when they opened and called and told them. They had an 11:30 for me which meant Jason had to head home soon so he could watch the boys.

I'm home now and my tooth looks nearly as bad as before. I'm so mad at that place. It's the kind of dentist where he doesn't really do anything and a bunch of young girls with who knows what certifications wander around doing all the real work for him. He came in and gave me the shot of anesthetic and told the girl her plan to patch it was a bad one, just take it off and start over. I think maybe she was mad at him and took it out on my mouth?

It looks that way.

I'm all gap toothed now and you can see obvious breakage on the veneer which is glued all thick in my mouth and I've got glue or something coating the back of the tooth too. They never even handed me a mirror. When I got into the car I was aghast and thought about walking back in there to make them fix it. Then I remembered it's just a temp.

You'd better believe that after I get the permanent one next week I'm not leaving until I approve their work. And I'm going to wear a business suit with every hair smoothed into place, fully made up. Rather than my unkempt hair and sweatsuit I'm wearing today. Perhaps from my appearance it looks like I don't care much? I might not be fancy but I don't want a messed up grill. Just because I'm a stay at home mom doesn't mean you can do shotty work on my mouth, you big lazy bunch of punks.

So that's my news for today.

Jason got the boys fed and in their rooms but Dalton isn't sleeping so I'd better go up and fix that. I hope he's not scared when he sees me.

J had to go back to work and I'd better find some lunch. I'm thinking corn on the cob so this stupid veneer falls off again and needs fixin'. ;)

Edited to add...I have nothing against gap teeth, or gap toothed people (well, except for Madonna). I've just had braces twice, never had a gap before and wish I still looked like me instead of like this:


That's all. I want it to look like this again:

Post 27 of 31 for