I know...I know...it's been too long!

So, I know it's been a while since I've written anything on here. I'm sorry for that. I've been a bad blogger. :) We had so much going on in the month of September that it was hard to keep track of everything! As some of you know, we moved into our new house at the end of September, so most of the month I was spending my extra time packing. I hate packing and I hope we don't have to do it again for a very long time. And if we do, hopefully the air force will be packing it for us! :)

We are all loving the new found room we have in the new place and have enjoyed painting walls for the first time since I was in high school. I guess that's part of renting... Anyways, Braydon was a super unpacker and got most of our stuff out of boxes before the first week was over. I was very impressed because I pride myself on doing well unpacking, but Braydon was so much better than me!! :) I've included a picture of the front of the house before we moved in and before they put our sod down. I'll post another one after I take a picture...hopefully tomorrow. :)



Ok...going back a little bit, the end of August my mom came to visit Landon for the first time since "the May incident". She was very surprised to see how well Landon was doing walking around with little assistance. We had fun hanging out together and I'm excited for her and Paul to come out to visit again next month. Here are some pictures we took while she was here:





Landon has been doing really well recently. He's been walking around only falling every once in a while. He's been starting to catch himself when he falls which he wasn't doing before. He normally just falls over cause his muscles lock up. He has been getting a lot more control of his muscles in his legs as well as in his arms and fingers. His left hand is back to normal, doing the majority of the work. We're trying to remind him that he has a right hand and to use "righty" just as much as "lefty". He has started to use "righty" spontaneously in play and his occupational therapist has been impressed with the progress he has made with using it. We are trying to work on the use of his fingers on his right hand with pointing exercises and reaching. He's made progress, but still has some way to go. Right now, Chelli has been trying to get him to play with shaving cream and pudding to get over any sensory issues he may have. When we first brought the shaving cream out, he wasn't sure what it was, but has slowly warmed up to it with a little encouragement.

Physical therapy has been going remarkably well. We've slowed PT down to once a week to make room for Ashley (the speech therapist) to fill in that spot. Penny didn't feel like she needed to see him twice a week and felt that he needed more help in other areas. So we've been doing that for the past couple of weeks now. When we see Penny, the sessions have become more of a play time of going down slides and crawling through tunnels. I can tell that Landon enjoys that time a little more than he used to because he doesn't realize he's "working". He just looks at it as play time.

I had mentioned in previous posts that our insurance covered Landon to get one of the "Kid Walk" walkers to help him learn to walk again. We got it mid-September, but found ourselves not really using it because Landon didn't seem to need it. We told Penny how little we were using it, and told her that if there was another family that needed it to let us know and we would be happy to let them use it. Low and behold, the next week she said she had found someone!! She works with another little boy who has downs syndrome and is also trached like Landon with a G-button. She said that he is about the same age as Landon and is just getting the hang of walking. Penny had put him in the Kid Walk that Children's has in the therapy room, and he loved it. I brought in ours for him to use that following week. I figured that if we can't use it anymore I would much rather someone else, that doesn't have the amazing insurance we have, to use it. There's no sense in it just sitting around our house collecting dust! Penny told me today that the family was so appreciative and that the little boy is loving playing in the Kid Walk. I was so happy to hear that. :)

Anyways, Landon's been working with Ashley for speech over the last few months, but since we have switched to twice a week, we wanted to start working on some ways to give Landon some communication skills besides the sign language. Ashley and Landon's teachers have all expressed to me that since he isn't picking up as many words as an average 2-year-old, that we need to find a way for him to communicate so when he goes into preschool a teacher will be able to understand him without having to know sign language. Their idea was to start with showing him pictures of things he is used to and giving him choices to pick from. We put these pictures on buttons that say the word when he presses them. He's picked up on it really well, and Ashley has moved him up to 6 different choices. Eventually, Ashley would like to get him to make sentences with these buttons, if need be. Landon's teacher also suggested that we keep broadening his sign language vocabulary because it gives him another way to communicate. I guess some things we may have better luck with than others, so why not try them all?!

Last month, we went to see Landon's eye doctor to get his eyes checked. I was anxious to see what he said since Landon was doing so well with keeping his glasses on. When he looked at Landon's eyes he told me that Landon developed Accommodative Esotropia. It's a fancy word for when his eye focuses, it turns inward. So he gave us a stronger prescription in his left eye and told us to come back in a couple months. It should resolve itself with the stronger prescription. Keep your fingers crossed for that.

We are going to see Landon's pediatrician tomorrow for a pre-op appointment. We've been putting it off, but the time has come to have Landon's MRI done to check the progress of his brain. Dr. LaCroix wanted to do one as soon as we got back from Denver, but we told her we weren't ready so she was fine with waiting. So now the day is growing nearer. Monday we will be putting Landon under anesthesia for the first time since May. I'm speaking for myself when I say that I'm very nervous about it!! Dr. LaCroix tried to assure us that it wasn't the anesthesia that caused all those problems in Denver, it was the treatment, but it still doesn't make it any easier!!!! Especially since he's doing so well. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers on Monday. His procedure is at 11 and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. I'll keep everyone posted. Dr. Quinlan (the ENT doctor) will also be taking another look into Landon's airway, and we will also be conducting a hearing test while Landon's under, to omit any problems with his ears. Just as a precaution. Trying to get it all done at the same time so we don't have to put him under too much.

On a more fun note, we took Landon to the Omaha Children's Museum on Monday. They have something called "Carefree Kids" that they conduct 3-4 times a year. It's for kids that have compromised immune systems (like Landon and children that are in similar situations). They throughly clean the place from top to bottom so that these children can come in without the threat of getting sick. So we had a lot of fun exploring the museum. He had a lot of fun in the fire truck with dad and in the sticker car with me. He was doing a nice job of turning the steering wheel with both hands (I know...the little things). He found the farm very funny. They have statues of different animals and have buttons that say the sound of the animal. Landon found the cow and sheep one to be hilarious and stood there pushing it for a good five minutes over and over again. Hopefully the workers can tune it out. :) They also have a play house that is just Landon's size to play in. We explored that and found the refrigerator which was another repetitive open and close, open and close. We got him away from that long enough to take a picture on the little sofa in the play house...


Landon playing in the "bedroom" of the play house.

The infamous refrigerator...

Those cow and sheep sounds are just so funny...

Landon trying to spray the house but ending up playing with the water instead. :)




Well, we love you all and I'll keep everyone updated about Monday! Have an awesome weekend!! :)