The Georgia Visitors

We have had an eventful week. Braydon's parents came to visit and brought a few of his siblings along with them. Rhea and Bridget (Braydon's sisters) had never met Landon before and got to spend some time getting to know him. He was scared of all the commotion over him, but quickly warmed up to them and enjoyed their company. It was nice having helping hands around here to help with Landon or help make dinner (Rhea is a marvelous cook). They came fully prepared to take over and let me and Braydon relax. It was a nice change of pace. Before we knew it the weekend was over and they had to get back to Georgia. Bridget had to go back to school for her senior year of high school and Bonnie had to get back to renovating the store she just bought....yes, she bought a gift shop, which she is naming Bumbleberry, in Clarkesville that she is really excited about. She wants to get everything done so she can reopen. If any of the Georgia people are reading this and you happen to be in Clarkesville, stop by, see her and give her a big hug from me. :) Below is a picture we took together (minus Braydon).


Anyways, Landon has been doing really well the past couple of weeks. He has made progress all around and is starting to sit up by himself where Braydon and I feel comfortable leaving him to go make breakfast or, for heaven's sake, use the bathroom without having to get someone else to watch him. It's been nice to be able to let him sit and play, and it gives us a break. Without cursing ourselves, it's starting to be like it used to be before all of this happened and he was able to play and do the things on his own that he wanted to do. I know it's only sitting up, but it's a step closer to more independence for Landon.

He's also been working on walking unassisted with Penny and takes 5-10 steps on his own before he falls. Penny advised us to go backwards and work on him sitting and crawling, so he might be able to gain more strength in his arms, shoulders, and trunk to help him when he does fall. She made the observation when we were there Thursday, that Landon is getting into the pattern he did before he started crawling. He wanted to stand and walk with you before he learned how to crawl and we had to back him up and work on crawling first. Now we are doing it with a few more challenges than we had before. He's still having trouble with his right hand and arm, but we spend a lot of time making him do things with it to help remind him that it's there. Occasionally he will use it on his own, which is promising. :)


On Wednesday Landon worked with Ashley (his speech therapist) and was being ornery with her not wanting to use the pasy muir. He cried when we put it on him so she just worked on combining signs asking him to say "more please". He did really well with it and caught on by the end of the session. We have, however, taught Landon how to say "up" and "on". It's not clear as a bell, but we know what he's saying and that's all that matters right now. :)

For an update on our house, we are waiting to hear from the builders this week about our exact closing date. We should know by Wednesday! I'm super excited, but also sooooo overwhelmed by the packing that needs to be done. I'm trying to take everything a day at a time and a room at a time...at least that's what I'm telling myself. I think that even that is overwhelming me! :) My mom is coming at the end of the month so hopefully she can light a fire under my butt to get me going...