Trach or Treat, Year 3

   As I have done every Halloween season since she was born, Emma is "forced" to have at least three or four photo shoots, dressed in various outfits and costumes. It's too fun to just do one! This year we started early in September because last year I regretted not taking her pictures with enough time to send out scrapbook cards. But this year I did and I made about 15 beautiful cards, each one looking different than the next. I did end up keeping at least five of them for ourselves and used them as decorations around the house since I did not ask Michael to get all the decorations out of the attic in the garage.

Costume #1: I Love my Mummy
   I think it was last Halloween that I picked these wrappings up from the dollar section of Target. They fit her perfectly and I tied a few spider rings to her, which I think made the outfit look even better. The marks on her lips are supposed to look like stitches, but she couldn't help but smile a lot in these! :)

Outfit #1: Boo! Little Pumpkins
   This outfit is a hand-me-down from Emma's cousin, Peyton. She wore this shirt last year too, but I put it on her again since she grows pretty slowly with her dwarfism. And I have it hung up again because it might fit her one more time next year too. She currently weighs 17 pounds, 5 oz and is 25 inches long. Most of her outfits are either 9 months or 12 months, aside from her jeans and shorts which are size 0-3 months!

Outfit #2: It's all just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!
   My cousin Abby sent Emma some goodies in the mail last month which included this little shirt and a bow with pumpkin designs on it. So obviously another mini photo shoot was necessary. She kept reaching behind her and playing with the skeletons, which is great for her balance!

^^ That is her "trick" face apparently!!

Costume #2: Baby Blood Widow
   For those who don't know, Michael and I met in film school (Full Sail University) ten years ago, and after we graduated we both got to work on a movie for three weeks in June 2011 called Blood Widow. We didn't make much money from it, but it is one of my favorite experiences and we had a lot of fun. Michael was the special FX makeup artist and I was the 2nd AD. It was at Redbox and everything! We got to keep a bunch of pieces of the costume, which I have used in the past for other costumes, but wanted to let Emma wear it once before the vest is completely shredded. Michael keeps telling me I need to throw it out, but it's such an important memento to me. The book next to Emma in the pictures is a scrapbook I made of our three weeks on set! This was an easy set of pictures to take since I never needed her to smile. She enjoyed picking up each piece of candy and flinging it across the room.

^^ I laughed at this picture because it made me think of her saying (in character), "What are those drunk kids doing in my house? I should kill 'em!" *ooh, spoilers*.. La de da, back to throwing the candies. ;)

   Emma's GI doctor was not able to sign off on her feeding supplies with the medical company until we came in to see him, and having the appointment scheduled for the end of November was not good enough. His nurse called me and was able to squeeze us into an appointment on Halloween morning- a day I had to work. But without it Emma wouldn't get the feeding supplies that she uses every single day. I was able to get a few hours off from work in order to attend this necessary appointment. The doctor said he wanted to get her off of the Pectin we have been putting in her formula (to help thicken up her stools), so we began weaning her off of that last week. However, she's back up to the normal amount as of last night - 10ml for every 5oz of mixed formula- because, even with a half amount of Pectin, yesterday she was basically throwing up every time she had her "poop chokes". For some reason she gags every time she has gas or poops, (she has always done this) and normally it's just saliva that fills the back of her mouth until she swallows it or we suction it out. But yesterday, while I was at work, Michael said she was doing the "poop chokes" more often than usual and each time a lot of formula was coming up too- so much that she was basically throwing up. Back to 10ml it is!!
   The GI doctor also wanted to see if she could switch from the sensitive tummy EleCare Jr formula (which we get from WIC) to something more regular like Pediasure, so the dietician gave us six 8oz bottles to try out. He says we don't even need to wean her from one to the other. He just wants us to switch her one day. Michael is going to try that next Monday. I hope she doesn't have a bad reaction to that too. But I told Michael that even if she does well on Pediasure, I want to use up the rest of the free WIC formula before we have to start paying for formula ourselves.

 ^^ This orange shirt is another hand-me-down from Peyton that will still fit her next year too! 

  & I don't know what Emma is doing in this picture below, but she kept doing it right before bed and it looked weird and Halloween appropriate. Haha! 

   That night I did not get home until 8:30pm, and Michael told me in advance that he felt like there was no point in taking her trick-or-treating since she wouldn't be able to eat any of the candy since she is still strictly fed formula through her G-tube (although we have started a new schedule of trying to get her to eat/swallow some baby foods over the past few weeks). I have already told Michael several times that I really want to take her to Boo at the Zoo in Gainesville next year, especially since next Halloween is on a weekend I have off! I might have to agree to a Star Wars themed family/group costume though. ;)