Juice boxes are awesome!!!

We've recently been working with Landon drinking out of a juice box. We used to have to sit with him and hold the box for him and squeeze it to get it to come out. We worked up to closing his mouth around the straw. Then, we worked on telling him to "kiss" the straw to get him to pucker his lips a little to get the sucking in.



He finally caught on and has now learned that he's a big boy and can do it all by himself!!! The next step is getting him drinking from a bigger straw...

When we went to see Chelli this week, she was so excited to see his progress with the straw. She said that it will probably be harder for him to drink from a bigger straw because it requires more lip closer. To help us practice, she gave us a cup with a lid a regular sized straw. With the straw, she gave us this little piece to put into the bottom of the straw so when the liquid is sucked up into the straw, it won't go back down. It will hopefully make it easier for Landon, and he will want to practice more with it. We're always setting new goals for him to accomplish. :)

I'm a little behind...

I've been so bad about updating this...sorry about that. Just a quick catch-up.

We had Landon's birthday party on the 10th. We set up a couple of kiddie pools in the backyard and put out every toy we could think of. I found a cute blow up soccer goal on sale at Toys-R-Us. It was a "monster" soccer goal with a "monster" ball. Landon loves the ball, but hasn't figured out that you are supposed to kick it in the net. :) We set that up, along with our pools and a tent for the grown-ups. Everyone had a fun time playing in the pools and eating cookie cake. I also found cute little cupcakes in the shape of hamburgers, that were super delicious. A bonus, they had chocolate frosting in the middle. Super yum! We opened gifts and Landon got so many new cars and toys. We were so thankful that so many of our friends took the time to come and celebrate with us!!!

My wonderful friend Megan took pictures for us at the party. She's so amazing at taking pictures...I think I'm going to have to start paying her. :) Anyways, I've posted the link to the shutterfly account that she posted the pictures on.
Megan's pictures Hopefully, it will work. If not, I've posted some that we took with our camera. They aren't as good as Megan's, but they give you the idea. :)


Landon dunking his head in the pool. He thought it was hilarious till he drank some of the water.


Eating yummy pizza at the picnic table.



Everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to Landon. By the look on his face in the next picture, I think he liked it. :)



A family picture with Landon's cake.


Landon saying "thank you" for one of his gifts.
Since Landon's party, we've been having our weekly trips to Children's for therapy sessions. He's doing really great with physical therapy. We've been working on riding toys like tricycles and scooters. He does really well on the scooter. He just doesn't know how to push it himself yet. Penny said his balance was really nice on it though. We tried him on the tricycle and he's really getting the hang of it. He's been pedaling like a maniac around the hospital, but is lacking in the steering department. I don't think he knows he can control where he goes.

Ashley has been testing him in speech therapy to see how far along he's coming in expressing himself and what he understands from other people. We finished up the 3 session test this week and she gave me a ball park estimate as to where she thinks he will be. He of course understands WAY more than he can express, and she said that that will help qualify him to get an augmentative device to help him until he learns how to express himself. An augmentative device is basically a computer that is full of pictures that he can push to say words for him. He can use it to build sentences as he gets older. Ashley thinks it will really help him in school to express himself to his teacher and to his classmates.

Success!!!!!

Tonight we had a big milestone for Landon. The past few months we've been trying to slowly introduce the potty to Landon. I've always been told that you know when a child is ready to be potty trained when they can tell you they have gone potty or bring you a diaper to change them. Well, we were lucky enough to get a child that doesn't care if he is wet or poopy...lucky us. So, I've been going back and forth on whether or not I should even try training him until he cares.

We've introduced a potty chair that fits on the big boy potty, and he didn't ever want to sit on it...EVER!! I always asked him if he wanted to go sit on it, but he wouldn't go. We've tried books, letting him watch us go, telling him he would be a big boy, and now we've moved onto bribing him with stickers. :) He was pretty motivated by them and sat on the potty a few times to get his precious stickers...but then he didn't care again. So, I backed off for a few days and then started reintroducing the idea to him. I tried to tell him to let me know when he needed to go. He just recently started bringing me or Braydon a diaper, but he hates the laying down part of the changing process. If it's not one thing, it's another. :)

So, tonight we were eating dinner, and Landon looked like he needed to go #2. I asked him if he was and he told me yes. So I tried the "Do you want to go sit on the potty?" line. I've tried this line so many times I've gotten used to him saying no, but tonight he said yes!!! So, I took advantage of the situation and took him upstairs and plopped him on the potty. We sang a couple of songs to relax him and he actually went!!!!!! I was so proud of him!!! I know it's just the first time, but I thought this day would NEVER come!!

Hooray for my little man that is turning into a big boy!! YAY!!!

Happy Birthday Landon!!!!!

My sweet little boy turned 3 today!!! Where does time go?

Three years ago, Braydon and I set out on a journey that would make us into better people and better parents. We've gone through so many obstacles with Landon, and have come out the other side as a stronger family. Landon is such a blessing to us, and I couldn't imagine life without my little Landon-bug.


Me and Landon, the day after he came home from the hospital...6 weeks old


Landon and Mommy - 6 months old


Daddy and Landon - 18 months old


Landon's first trip to see Santa


Our little family today
Thank you for all the birthday wishes from everyone, whether it was a phone call, a card, or even just a message on facebook. All are appreciated!!

We had fun opening presents this morning. Landon got a wagon from Nonna, and we got him a little artist's table that he can make pictures on. He went to town with the green marker...getting it pretty much anywhere the paper wasn't. ;) Thank goodness they are washable markers!


Opening Nonna's gift...he loved the fish card!





He noticed that his name was on the easel...he pointed it out to me!! He's so smart!


Mom, would you mind helping me open these? I want to color all over the easel...



His new truck "Stinky"...yes...Stinky...it's a garbage truck.


A coloring book...colored pencils...what else is in this bag??



Landon and all his loot.
Landon got some money from Great-Grandpop to go shopping with, and our nurse Theresa gave him a gift card to Toys-R-Us. We headed over there for a shopping trip, since Landon likes to cruise the aisles and pick out stuff. He kept asking for cars, and found himself overwhelmed with all the choices! He finally made a decision on which ones he liked. We also found a Nemo fish that he LOVED and can go into the bath or the pool with him. He had to have that one opened in the car for the trip home. :) Thank you to Theresa and Great-Grandpop!!!


One of the few cars we got on our shopping trip...

We will be having Landon's birthday party on Saturday, which I'm excited about. Just keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANDON!!!! MAMA AND DADA LOVE YOU!

We're making it official!!!!

I'm pretty sure that I've told everyone about this, but in case that you are someone that doesn't know...this is the news (and please don't think it's because I forgot about you) .......

We're expecting number 2!!!!! Due January 26, 2011


I went to the doctor last week, and everything looked perfect. The heartbeat was strong and fast, just the way it should be. I'm 9 weeks along, and still getting the occasional feeling of nausea. Nothing sounds good to eat and I can only eat small meals. It's a totally different experience than the one that I had with Landon, but I'm glad that I've almost made it to the 2nd trimester!! The light at the end of this very long, nauseous tunnel is coming! :)

Just passing the time...

So, in the past month, Braydon has been home for about a week and a half. His work has been sending him on trips, which leaves me home alone with Landon. We've been spending a lot of time together just trying to pass the time till Braydon gets home.

This past weekend, I had Landon by myself from Friday night till Tuesday morning when Theresa got here. Landon didn't nap any of the days in between...lucky me. I think the "no nap" days caught up with Landon today when we went to see Penny. Poor Penny. She was trying to encourage him to ride the tricycle, but he just stared off into space. He started to pedal, but was soooooo slow about it!!! We called him turtle all morning cause he did everything in slow motion. She worked on the stairs with him. He walked up and would go down the slide, but the second Penny tried to switch it up on him he had a melt down. Thankfully, Penny knows when he's faking, and we worked past it. :) The second we finished what Penny wanted him to do and went back to what he wanted, he stopped crying. He sure knows how to work a crowd. ;)

Other than that, we haven't had much going on. Ashley had to reschedule with us for Friday this week. We're mixing things up a bit. ;)

Fun with the pool...

We spent some time outside today. Since it was supposed to get really warm, Theresa and I decided to "make" Landon get into some water. I filled up Landon's sand box with a little bit of water and put some toys in there....do you think he liked it???




He's so funny about doing new things. He didn't want to have anything to do with it at first, but after some persistence and encouragement, he gave in and tried it. He had so much fun and we were glad that we decided to do it.

We had our appointment with Dr. Quinlan last week to see what his plans were for Landon this summer. He said that Landon looked really good and that he decided that he is going to hold off on the tonsilectomy until after he takes another look into his airway. URG!!!! I know he's more concerned about his airway, but I guess I was under the impression that we were going to do the tonsilectomy anyways...so why wait?? He wants to make the appointment for the beginning of August (before school starts) and had talked to me about what we wanted to do about Landon's lip and tongue. He had mentioned doing a treatment on Landon's lip that we are considering thinking about. He had mentioned taking some of the bigger polyps off of Landon's tongue. I asked if it would really make a difference since lymphangioma and hemangiomas can come back, and he said that it probably will take them away, but they could come back. I figure if it doesn't have a 100% guarantee then why do it?? So Braydon and I will be talking about what exactly we want him to do. We'll see...