Saturday, February 21, 2009

Home Again

Okay, they are home.  

The doctor seemed to think that there was a mucus plug in his lungs that was 
causing his fever and high heart rate. 

Right before Kelly and Landon left for the ER, Landon started to cough and gaged on something
and then spit up a lot of stuff. I am sure that if it was a mucus plug that he got it up at that time.

Everything seems to be better now. 

We will let you know if anything changes.

DAD 

Friday, February 20, 2009

Another ER visit for Landon - written by Dad

Well, here we go again. Kelly and Landon are off to the Emergency Room. After returning home from the DSAGR meeting, where both of the kids had a wonderful time, Landon's heart rate started to rise and his oxygen levels started to decrease. 

After talking with the on-call doctor from the pediatricians office, who said that if after 1 hour after giving him motrin, his heart rate did not go back to normal, then we needed to take him to the Emergency room. So after an hour, off they went.

The doctor was afraid that he might have, what she called, the begining signs of the Flu.  She said that after battling RSV as long and hard as he did, that fighting the flu could be harder than usual.  But, Landon has been a fighter thus far, I do not think he will fight any less this time, of course he gets that from his father.

Well, when I find out more news I will let everyone know.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and peacefull evening.

DAD

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Landon!

Dear Landon,

It is unbelievable to me that you are now one - year - old. The year has flown by, and like your sister, you have brought so much wonder, amazement and tremendous joy to our family.

The moment I first saw you, my thought was, "WOW! You looked just like McKayla when she was a baby". Actually, it is amazing the similarities between you and her. The expression on your faces; the way you tap on things with your thumb ,hand spread wide open; how you both said “dada” early on; your laugh. A not quite so fun similarity is that both of you spent your first year with never-ending congestion that left us trying all we could to clear you up. And alas, you both missed out on your father’s eagle eye vision. But...that's about all of your father's attributes that you missed out on!

Landon, your dad and I cherish and adore who you are, as you are. You are our creation and you are absolutely perfect in every way, even down to that extra little chromosome. When we learned you had Down syndrome, we didn’t cry, we weren’t upset, we just thought, “okay, what does this mean for Landon?” We knew that your future was as uncertain, but as open as it was for McKayla. We knew that you would face struggles and triumphs just like her, though they may be different ones. We believe that you will accomplish all you choose to do as we know she will. And we’ll be there to do all we can, and help in any way possible, so that you both will aspire to your dreams.

You have already been a tremendous teacher, and have opened so many doors that your dad and I never knew existed. We definitely view the world in a different way and appreciate the intricacies of life we would have never previously though twice about. We have met many new friends who have provided wonderful insight and support and we have marveled at the acceptance and love bestowed upon you from our dear family, friends and acquaintances.

Landon, we feel so immensely blessed and honored that you are our son. Happy First Birthday, my beautiful baby boy.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy



This is mommy and you just 2 weeks before you were born.

This is you just hours after you were born.  See how much you looked like McKayla!

You looked so tiny in your daddy's arms.  

McKayla adored you from the moment she first met you.  She loves to help take care of you.

This is you at 2 months old and one of the rare pictures of you and mommy.

Here you are at 3 months, offering one of your rare, yet beautiful smiles.

4 months old and I managed to capture that smile again!

5 months old - look at you standing with Daddy!

6 months old - here you are with silly Mommy wearing McKayla's balloon butterfly hat!

7 months old and you are working on pushing up!

8 months old and McKayla loves for you to sit with her so she can read to you.

9 months old and this was your first Thanksgiving!

10 months old for your first Christmas.  You love playing (and eating) the tissue paper!

11 months old - you love bathtime in the sink.  You make such a mess splashing!

And here is the 1 year old.

Happy 1st Birthday, baby!  We love you!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentines Day - Two Years Ago

For Valentines Day, 2007, Dustin gave me a huge balloon that played an excerpt of "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You".  McKayla loved it!  This was the first time we ever saw her dance, so I quickly pulled out the cameral to capture it on video.  The loud bang you hear in the middle of the video is me hitting the balloon so it would play the song again.  





Happy Valentines Day everyone!!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

A New Discovery and A Beautiful Day

Landon's eye has been recovering well from surgery, we've just had to put about a thousand drops in it.  Of course, he hates it.  We have also begun patching his good eye to get the other eye working again.  That too, he hates.  He is a completely different baby with his patch on.  He becomes very grumpy, less interactive and kind of mopey.  So we have to work hard to keep him stimulated.  We know he can see.  If you put an object in front of him, he will reach for it.  We just don't know what or how well.  We'll find out more on Monday.

Oh, and I won't be able to call him a baby this time next Sunday.  (His first birthday!)

This is the typical face that Landon has with the patch on:


What you are about to see is our attempt to comply with Landon's therapy.  The goal is to sit him on something low to the ground, where his feet can touch.  We are working on him bending over to reach for things, which will strengthen his abdominal muscles.  We need to strengthen the abdominal muscles in order to work up to walking.  Presently, Landon is sitting up and rolling over, however he is not going from sitting up to laying down (and the reverse).  Shame we can't get him to do pilates...


Well, he tried to reach for the multitude of toys, but gave up for something easier to get a hold of:


First one, then the other:


We are also trying to work on feeding.  He is still on 5 bottles a day and eating only baby food.  If we try to introduce anything with texture (such as rice, soft noodles, soft fruit, etc.) he ultimately gags or just plain spits it out.  One thing to encourage feeding himself is to give him a spoon to hold while you feed him.  This is his new favorite toy!


And look what we discovered while we were feeding him!  His first tooth!!!


Yesterday was a beautiful day.  We had a visit from Debby and Jordan and went outside to enjoy the weather and take lots of pictures of three adorable kids.  However, three adorable kids rarely want to stand together, look forward and smile at the same time.  



Landon really enjoyed his time outside.  All new things for him to see.  Actually, this is probably the first time he's been outside and has been able to enjoy it.  He was too little when the weather was nice before.


He really liked playing with the grass!  (Shame on mommy for removing his patch so he could enjoy the outdoors.)




(Note:  I had to stand him up here.  He will stand up and hold on for a long time, but he's not yet pulling himself up.)

Friday, February 6, 2009

An Unlikely Player

Take a look at this video and see what happens when you take a chance on the unexpected...

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/29030653#29030653

I found myself getting every bit as excited as his parents. I only wish he had been given this opportunity more than once.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Birthday and The Haircut

To make life easier, we will be combining McKayla and Landon's birthday parties, since their birthdays are only two weeks apart.  But, now that McKayla is older, and has been telling everyone lately that her birthday is February 1st, we decided to do something special for her on her birthday.  

We headed out and went to Toys R Us so McKayla could pick out a present for her birthday.  After picking up a couple of things, she decided on blocks.  She loves to build things, especially "castles".  When we got home this evening, this is what she built:

Me:  "McKayla, what are you building?"

McKayla:  "A birdhouse."

Me:  "It's beautiful!"

McKayla:  "It's not beautiful, it's just a birdhouse."

Me:  "Is it pretty?"

McKayla:  "Yep."

Brother enjoyed playing with the blocks as well.  Take note of his hair in this picture.  I will explain later.

After Toys R Us, we went to Cici's Pizza.  Much to my surprise, McKayla ate over half of my salad.  She LOVES tomatoes and though we loaded her plate up (and she ate every single one) she decided to try my salad, something she has never cared for before.  I think she liked it because it was covered in ranch dressing.  She loves ranch dressing.  She doesn't like ketchup, mustard or really any other type of sauce.  She also doesn't like chocolate milk - how weird is that?

After lunch we ventured across town to a place that has a bunch of large blow up bouncy things.  She had so much fun.  It is truly amazing, too, that she was able to climb almost all of them - they could challenge a Navy Seal.  Or maybe I'm just r-e-a-l-l-y out of shape.  



After dinner this evening I finally decided that I was going to give Landon a haircut.  His hair was beginning to get very unruly, not to mention that it gets in the way of taping his eye shield on.  I've been debating on taking him somewhere for a professional to do it, or just taking Dustin's clippers to his head myself.  Tonight, I got brave.  There may be a few stray hairs that didn't make it through the clipper, but his haircut turned out quite cute, if I do say so myself!!  The funny thing is now his hair looks really blond (though you can't tell in these pictures)!