Santa came!

It was a fun, relaxing, and white Christmas for us this year. Snow started falling on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and it continued off and on until this evening. I think all together we got about another foot of snow to add to the foot from a couple of weeks ago. We figured that it would be easier to shovel it off of the driveway as it fell then try and get out there when it's a foot deep. So, Braydon had to shovel the driveway twice today (which he wasn't happy about, but did anyways). It's worked out nicely. I think one final shovel in the morning will do the trick. So, needless to say, we've been inside for the past couple of days. We're both starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. We're hoping the plows will come through in the morning to clear our street so we can get out of the house.

Christmas was great!! Landon enjoyed opening presents this year and we were pretty much got done by lunch! That's amazing compared to last year where we spent all day opening presents and then had to open some for him at the end of the evening. So we are making progress. I took some pictures of when we were doing Santa gifts. He loved his new kitchen and wanted to play with it all morning.




Here are a couple more of Landon playing with his new AquaDoodle:



I also got one of Landon clapping. He was reading his new Dora book, and for some reason is happy cause she is sleeping...I don't know.



I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. I hope you aren't snowed in like we are. Cross your fingers that we can get out of the house tomorrow. :) We're back to our normal week next week of therapy, so I'll be updating if anything exciting happens. Braydon's sister, Rhea, is coming to visit on New Year's day. So if I don't get back here by then, everyone have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope 2010 is going to be a lot better than 2009!! :)

Santa Claus is coming to town!

We had some fun times today! The rehab department at Children's Hospital did a Christmas party at a local hotel and we went to join in the festivities. They also had Santa there, which was an extra bonus. :) We haven't ever taken Landon to see Santa, and have heard some bad experiences from parents that take their kids too early. So we decided to wait till Landon was a little older so he wouldn't freak out about some weird guy in a red suit.

All week we've been telling him about Santa and how he brings toys. He's been watching cartoons that have Santa in them, and I really think he's starting to understand. Today we kept telling him that he was going to see Santa, and Braydon even mentioned that if Landon gave him a big hug that Santa would give him a present. :) Landon was excited and shook his head yes whenever we would ask if he was going to see Santa and take a picture with him. I was really curious to see how he would actually do.

They had lots of little games at the party for the kids to play and things to do. We did a couple of the little games so that Landon could get some stickers (which we all know he loves). I stood in line for Santa, and was watching as some families had to back out at the last minute cause their kids were crying. I was hoping that wouldn't be Landon....and it wasn't! He was such a big kid taking a picture with Santa!! He sat in his lap, Santa gave him a new toy car, Landon said thank you, and he sat on the floor and played with it until we left. He did sooo good! Here's Landon's first picture with Santa:


Here's a couple more of Landon getting to play some of the games. Their theme was the game Candy Land, so all of the games were related to the game in some way. This one was supposed to represent the character Plumpy that has plums and a plum tree. Ashley was there, and helped Landon with throwing beanbags onto the plum tree. The beanbags were supposed to represent the plums. Landon just walked up there, stuck them on, and seemed content with that. :)


The next one was Gloppy the Chocolate Monster. They had the littler kids ride in a tub to go pick up a sticker at the other side. It was really cute and Landon had fun riding in the tub. He looks so cute with just his head popping out of the top. :)


Other than that, Landon has been doing really well. He's been such a lovebug lately and wants someones attention 24/7. We've gone to therapy this week and have been really working Landon's right hand with Chelli, and working on crawling up onto chairs or into someones lap with Penny. Landon's doing really well learning both. He still prefers his left hand to his right, but we've noticed him using it more for play and also for function. It's been a nice progress. The chair we are still getting the hang of, but we are making progress.

Ashley has been working on Landon's speech book, which I'm not sure that I've mentioned before. It's basically a notebook that has a bunch of different pictures that represent toys, actions (like brushing your teeth), TV shows, or foods with velcro on the back. Landon uses it by giving you the picture of something to communicate what he wants. He does so well with it and has moved up to pages of things instead of just a couple of choices. Ashley is also spending some time testing Landon on his communication skills. She started on Tuesday doing the receptive part of the test to see what Landon understands. He did awesome on it and we only had to stop a couple of times in one hour. We were very impressed! Next week we're going to be working on the expressive part, which will probably be where Landon is going to struggle. It will, in the end, give us an estimation as to where Landon is developmentally with his speech (which we know he's not up to par), but will also give us an idea on what we need to be working on with him. We're also going to start introducing letters to practice saying with him. I'm hoping that he will catch onto this cause I would really like to hear him express himself better. Cross your fingers for us!!

Well, other than that, and the Christmas season here, we've been a busy family. :) I'll try to do another update before Christmas if we have stuff going on. We're supposed to get more snow this week, but we're hoping it isn't going to be a lot.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!

So the holidays are here and we hope everyone has a happy one. Braydon and I have been busily getting our shopping done. All the Christmas cards are sent out and presents are in the process of being wrapped. We think Landon will have a fun Christmas this year.


As I'm sure everyone has heard, we've had a bit of snow over the past week or so. We're expecting to get more tomorrow...goody! Braydon had a few days off of work and schools were closed for 3 days straight. We weren't necessarily snowed in, but no one wanted to go anywhere because it was so bitterly cold outside. Needless to say, we ended up skipping therapy this week. I figured if the schools were closed, we didn't need to be out there either. I took a picture from our front door down our street to give you an idea of how much snow we got. We not only had snow, but the wind was gusting up to 50 mph one night. The brown house in the picture on the right-hand side of the street got a pretty big snow drift along side of their house. One our nurses tried to come in on Wednesday, but couldn't find her car in the snow!! All-in-all it's gotten much better. The roads aren't as slick as they were. We've been spending a lot of time inside being silly. We took pictures of Landon's hair this morning after Braydon gave him a spikey look. :)


I also got some pictures today of a glimpse into the future...Braydon taught Landon how to play a video game today...super, huh? Now I won't have to deal with just my husband, but my son too. :)



Here's a couple pictures of me and Braydon getting all dressed up like ninjas to go try to build a snowman. (The snow was too powdery.) If you are wondering...we didn't leave our 2 year old in the house alone. Our nurse took these pictures. :)

Hello all!

The Walshes have been pretty boring over the past week or so. We've started the dreaded Christmas shopping and are almost done. I'll be happy when it's all over!

We had an uneventful Thanksgiving. Braydon and I had another couple, Megan and Brad, over for a small Thanksgiving. It was actually really nice cause Megan helped to make the sides and I made the turkey. It was my first turkey by myself and it was pretty good. I was proud of myself. :) We had a nice meal enjoying each other's company. Megan, being about 35 weeks pregnant, had a hard time eating a lot, but enjoyed our company instead. We spent the night hanging out with a couple more friends that came over. Landon fell in love with Megan and wouldn't leave her sight the whole night! He was trying to climb up on the couch to sit next to or on her. It was super sweet although I'm sure Megan got tired of it. :)

The next morning we got news that Megan went into early labor, and delivered her son the day after Thanksgiving! Nevin Oren Roberts was born at 6lbs 4oz and is doing great for being early! He was in the NICU for a few days, but is now at home doing well. Congratulations to Megan and Brad!!