Another doctor's appointment

Just a little note...

Yesterday we had a follow-up visit with Landon's eye doctor, Dr. Troia. The last time we saw him was in January and he prescribed atropine drops for Landon's eyes. Atropine has many uses in the medical world, but in Landon's case we were to put a drop into his strong eye every other day. It dilates his pupil and blurs his vision to make his weaker eye work harder to see. It's ultimately supposed to strengthen the eye and fix the far-sightedness when used with his glasses. We had tried using atropine with Landon before when he was little and it didn't work so well because he liked to pull off his glasses. He never wore them because we didn't want to fight with him to keep them on. It was a never ending battle. Since last May we have treated the glasses like they are a part of him. He wears them as much possible now and keeps them on.

When we saw Dr. Troia yesterday he took a look at Landon's eyes and said that they were getting better. Not fixed yet, but making small progress in the right direction. He spouted out some medical terminology about Landon's eye turning in at a 10 to 12 degree angle instead of a 15 degree angle. Don't ask me what that means, but he said that was good and to keep putting the drops in and keep his glasses on. We will go see him again towards the end of June.

Landon was supposed to have a playdate tomorrow, but it had to be cancelled cause one of the little girls he was going to play with got sick, so we're gonna have to figure out something else to do. Maybe the park or something. We're going to have to take advantage of the nice weather since it's supposed to rain again tomorrow night. Not complaining...at least it isn't snow. :)

Little giggles from a cute little boy

I uploaded this video for everyone to watch. We were watching America's Funniest Home Videos the other night and Landon thought one of the segments was hilarious! Thankfully, I got it on video. I hope everyone enjoys it!

I also decided to give Landon a haircut yesterday afternoon. I've been doing it ever since his first haircut when he was a little more than a year old. He does pretty good if we give him something to watch on TV. I use clippers just cause it's faster than using scissors. The clippers have little attachments you can put on the end to cut the hair shorter or longer. I decided to use a 6 on the top of his head and a 3 for the sides. We got him all set up with his video to watch and I grabbed what I thought was the 6 attachment and started at the top of his head. Apparently, I grabbed the 3.... So now Landon's hair is extra short. Oops!! :) At least he isn't old enough to be traumatized by it! :)






The weather was nice on Wednesday and Thursday, but for some reason Mother Nature decided she needed to get one last snow storm in before spring started. We got a couple of inches of snow, but thankfully the sun melted most of it today. What has been up with this weather?!? I wish it would just be spring already! Heidi and I took Landon out to play in the grass on Thursday. He is doing okay walking in the grass. He's a little wobbly since his balance is an issue we have to work with, but maybe with a lot of practice it will get better. He better get ready cause we are going to play outside a lot this summer! :)

Well, I've had a busy week of running around like a chicken with my head cut off, so tomorrow I AM RELAXING!!! I always tell myself that, but I'm also always finding things to do. Maybe I'll tie myself to a chair....that might help. :)

Hope in an elevator

I meant to post this the other day and have had the busiest week so I'm just now getting around to it. Heidi (one of Landon's nurses) and I took Landon to therapy the other day to sit with Chelli and work on feeding stuff as well as the normal fine motor things that she does with him. She hasn't seen Landon eat since our last swallow study. I can't even remember when that was...last summer maybe?? Anyways, she put him in a booster seat and was demonstrating to me and Heidi how to help him to close his mouth around a spoon. We're trying to work on strengthening the muscles around his mouth by making him work more for his food (by closing his mouth). She also worked on biting with him. I've been that mom that cuts everything in super small bite-sized pieces for Landon since we haven't had him chewing on anything for probably a year now. (That sounds horrible now that I type it on here...we need to work on that more!) Anyways, she was showing us that even if he just attempts to bite down to make a big deal out of it...Landon LOVES praise. :) He chomped on a cracker a few times, not getting much off of it. We were happy he was at least trying.

Therapy went great that day. As we were getting on the hospital elevators to go to the parking garage, we got on the elevator with a teenage girl and her mom. The doors closed and the mom asked me very nonchalantly, "Does he have a vascular malformation?" I was pretty taken aback since not very many people know what that is or how to recognize it. At first I thought maybe she was a doctor, but it turns out that her 17 year old daughter, the one that was standing in front of me, had it as a child! The malformation was along her right cheek. Looking at her, I couldn't even see a glimse of where it was. As we got off the elevator, she told me that they put a shunt (if that's how you spell it) into the vein that was supplying the malformation and it made it go away. I was glad to get to meet her, even if it was only for the 30 second ride in the elevator. It gave me hope to see that her daughter had overcome this thing that has been haunting us for two and a half years. I'm so thankful to her for saying something and sharing her story with us. Heidi and I didn't know what to say when we were getting in the car. I think we were both hoping that one day Landon could be that person for someone else.

Less cow, more sunshine!

We went to see Dr. Zapata today for a follow-up appointment. He works with us on Landon's food intake. I was eager to go after talking to the dietician on Thursday.

Landon was weighed in when we first got there. He now weighs 31 lbs 14 oz!!!!!! He's gaining weight like crazy! We talked to Dr. Zapata and he told us that we didn't need to keep anymore food journals...YEA!!!! He said to take Landon's milk down to 20 oz a day!!!! (Did I call it or what?!?) So, Braydon and I decided to break up the 20 oz into 3 feedings a day instead of 4. We're really excited cause now if we want to, we can go to bed when Landon goes to bed. We haven't been able to do that for two and a half years now! Normally we have to stay up until 1030 or 11 to start his last feeding while he's sleeping. Then, I have to get up in the middle of the night, half asleep, to take it off of him. It's gonna be so different to sleep through the night.

The dietician said to start giving Landon a Vitamin D supplement daily. I asked if we could just start giving him vitamin D milk, but she said that he wouldn't get enough. So now he just has a dose of vitamin D in his milk in the morning. I believe that vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, right??

We're really excited that things have been going well. Keep Landon in your thoughts and prayers that he keeps making more progress in the right direction. We're so excited for him!

No Changes...What a bummer!

I talked to the dietician yesterday. I was anxious to talk to her because I always like to hear about how well Landon's doing. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right. :)

When I spoke to her she had gone through Landon's food journal I had given her. She told me that Landon was averaging 400 to 450 calories a day! There was a day toward the end of the journal that he only got 320 calories so it brought his overall average down. Taking that into consideration, she said to keep giving him 24 oz a day. She said that his weight still looked good. He was in the 60th percentile for weight. She has told me that that is right where he needs to be (and stay). I realized talking to her that the last day on the journal Landon was coming down with a cold. She told me that that could be a factor, but to keep him at 24 oz until we come in to see Dr. Zapata on Tuesday.

I told her that I would keep a food journal over the weekend, so I had something to show the doctor that would be a little more accurate for what he is eating right now. I think he's doing great, but we'll see if the doctor wants to be more aggressive with his milk. Just to give you an idea of what Landon eats, here's what he had today:

For Breakfast: One scrambled egg with cheddar cheese and 1/2 oz of fruit punch
For Lunch: One whole beef hot dog, 1 tablespoon of carrots, 3 tablespoons of spaghetti, 1 1/2 tablespoons of strawberries, 1/2 oz fruit punch, and 1/2 oz. of water
For Dinner: 3 bites of spinach and mushroom pizza, 3 tablespoons of cucumbers, 1/2 of a banana, 10 Nilla wafers, and 1/2 oz of water.

So, what do you think?? Pretty good for a two year old, I think. :) Tonight was the first time we have given him cucumbers, and he LOVED them!!

So, we will be going to see Dr. Zapata on Tuesday for an appointment. Hopefully, he will want to be more aggressive with Landon's milk, so we can get him down to maybe 20 oz?? That's my goal for right now. But we'll see...

Pictures of our big boy!

Hello all!

I've included some pictures of Landon in his "big boy" bed. He was all smiles that night so I took advantage of it and took some cute photos of him. Enjoy!







These next pictures I took while Braydon was running around making Landon laugh. He was running back and forth in the hallway, jumping around. Landon thought it was hilarious! I think you can tell by the look on his face. He couldn't stop laughing to catch his breath. ;) The pics came out pretty cute.



Landon's been doing really well in his new bed. He's really good about staying in the bed until we come in there to get him. Eventually he'll probably learn how to escape, but we're just enjoying the fact that he's enjoying himself in there. :)