Update on Landon...

It's been a little over a week since Landon had is tonsils taken out and you can't even tell from the picture, huh?  He's doing pretty good.  We've gotten to a point now where he doesn't need as much Tylenol to control the pain and he's wanting to eat again.  Swallowing is another story.  I'm pretty sure his throat still hurts when he swallows.  He will want to eat something and chew it up, but not want to swallow it.  I know...too much information.  He's getting better though.  We gave him ice cream for dinner one night and he enjoyed that, but he has been wanting his regular diet more.  He breaks my heart every time I'm eating because he'll tell me that he wants to have what I'm having. :(  Hopefully, he will start to feel better soon and he'll be able to eat what he wants.

We went to see Dr. Zapata on Tuesday for a follow up.  He just keeps tabs on Landon now.  We haven't been there since September.  When Landon got weighed he was right around where he was last September and Dr. Zapata wasn't too happy about that.  He said that Landon should still be gaining weight even with just having surgery.  So we're back to keeping a food journal.  But only for four days and when Landon starts feeling better.  They want to see how much he is eating.  They also want to give him a higher calorie formula to get through his G-button.

I'm pretty wishy-washy about this whole formula thing.  If we're giving him more calories through his button, isn't it going to make him more full??  I guess I don't get the logistics of it all, but I'm wanting him to gain weight by the food he puts in his mouth not the food going in his button...ugh!  It's such a juggling act.  I'm hoping to send them a good report on what he's eating and they can cut him back again.  Right now, we have to go back for monthly weigh-ins...goody.  I'm pretty convinced he's going to be small like I was and we shouldn't even be worried about it.

On a more fun note, I took some pictures of Landon having fun with his dad the other night.  He thought it was fun to get a funny reaction from Braydon when he poked him in the eye. :)

Daddy is so funny!!!

Last week the family was goofing off in the loft playing.  Sydney was playing on the floor next to us while we were entertaining Landon.  Braydon decided to make a funny noise at her like he was throwing up and she thought it was hilarious!  It's the first true belly laugh we've gotten from her, so I got some on video.  Enjoy! :)

Zoo time!!!

I was hoping to get Landon to the zoo before we had his tonsils out.  The weather had been so hot here for a few days that I didn't think we would get the opportunity.  On Wednesday, it decided to cool off enough so that we could go.  I bought a zoo pass so that we could take him whenever we wanted to.  They have just about everything there, but of course we spent our time with the fish in the aquarium.  He didn't want to leave the building.  They have a tunnel you walk through where you can see fish, sharks, stingrays, turtles, and if you're lucky, a human might swim by. :)

Mommy wasn't thinking clearly that morning and forgot to bring the camera...I know!  I'm getting really bad.  Thankfully, I had my phone on my camera.  It doesn't take the best pictures, but it's better than nothing.

Sydney's ready...

And so is Landon (I told him to smile and this is what I got) :)

Heidi showing Landon the penguins.  I think he was a little freaked out about the bubble.

This one didn't come out so good.  He wouldn't be still and I couldn't get my phone to take a good pic.  Like I said, better than nothing. :)

We will definitely be going back more this summer.  Maybe next time we'll be able to see more than just the aquarium???  Perhaps the monkeys??  :)

No more tonsils!

Well, Landon had his tonsils removed on Thursday morning.  He did great.  Dr. Quinlan said that they were quite large and he was glad that we took them out.  He had mentioned to me about doing some sleep studies to see how Landon does after he is healed.  I'm kind of anxious to see what will happen.  We've waited for this stage for almost 4 years now.  It's crazy that it's almost here.

It also makes me nervous.  Landon's lip and tongue have a tendency to swell slightly when he gets sick.  In anyone else it may not be that big of a deal, but for Landon with his throat and mouth already in a compromised state it could make getting a cold into a pretty big ordeal.  Dr. Quinlan is also wondering the same thing.  Landon's condition is so individualized that it's hard to know exactly what will happen.  Dr. Quinlan just wants to make sure that Landon has a large enough airway for breathing and also, if need be, to be able to intubate him (or stick a tube down his throat) in case of an emergency.  Hopefully we won't have to worry about that.

So, the tonsils came out just fine.  Dr. Quinlan wanted to keep Landon overnight in the hospital in case of excessive bleeding, but he did great with that.  He was on oxygen during the night because he couldn't keep the oxygen levels in his blood up.  The doctors were looking for him to stay in the 90% range, but there were a couple of times he dipped in to the high 80s.  Not anything too drastic.  Once we figured out that it was the heavy narcotics he was on for the pain, he was able to be off the oxygen.  It was not fun telling a three year old he couldn't get out of bed....no fun.  The poor thing didn't understand and I think he thought we were punishing him.  I felt horrible and was doing all I could to make things move along as quickly as possible.

On Friday, they ordered a chest x-ray to make sure nothing too serious was going on because Landon started to develop a fever.  They found a little spot in his right lung that they were concerned about.  They said that it could've been something left over from anesthesia or it could be the start of pneumonia.  So, just in case, they wanted to keep him another night and they started him on an IV antibiotic to try and get ahead of it in case he was getting sick.  Braydon said his fever broke in the middle of the night after a dose of the antibiotic and he got some rest.  After seeing the hospital doctor on Saturday, we were able to go home.

Now Landon is playing somewhat normally.  He's still a little tired cause he hasn't been sleeping well, but hopefully that will get better.  He hasn't wanted to eat anything even though he's tried to.  He starts to cry cause it hurts to swallow and gives up.  I don't blame him.  Keep my little man in your thoughts for a speedy recovery.

My little Picasso

We had some fun the other day with some finger paints.  The Easter Bunny brought Landon some for Easter.  Heidi had taken note at school that he loved the finger paints, so the note was passed on to the famous bunny.  I was surprised the first time we tried them...he LOVED it!  I never thought he would enjoy them much because he would always shy away from the things that were mushy or slimy in/on his hands.  We tried for a while to get him to play with playdoh and he never liked it, and Chelli had him work with putty and he didn't like that either.  That's why I was surprised that he liked the finger paints so much.  We hadn't done them for a while, and we broke them out the other day.

I was really surprised when he dipped the fingers on his right hand in the paint...he did so good.

You can kind of see in this picture how he was writing some of his numbers.  There is a three by his finger and a one in the corner closest to us.

Mostly, he likes to make dots with the paint.  The last time he made a picture it was made up of lots of green dots that he called fish. :)  I'm glad that we've kind of moved passed that into numbers now. :)

The last day of school

I've been kind of slacking in the blog department.  No excuse really, just that we haven't been doing much that's that exciting to write about. :)

Landon had his last day of school this week.  I think he had mixed feelings about it.  The few days prior, he kept telling me that he didn't want to go to school and we were counting the days until he didn't have to go.  Then, on the last day, he was wanting to stay at school and didn't want to leave.  His last day consisted of an ice cream party and playing with bubbles and sidewalk chalk.  The kids had a lot of fun and Landon really liked the ice cream with, of course, M&Ms on top. ;)  I was dealing with a screaming baby that morning, so I forgot to bring my camera...I know...shame on me, right?? ;)

I can't believe my little man will be four soon.  Time flies.  For those of you that are wondering, Landon will be going through another year of preschool before he moves on to kindergarten.  Personally, I think he could move on to kindergarten with most of his classmates, but his communication is holding him back.  He's smart and knows everything, if not more, than the other kids in his class.  It makes me sad that that's what holds him back.  He has been doing really well with trying to say words.  He's been doing great with trying to say different sounds and combine them into words.  I'll have to see if I can get a video of him.  He's been changing  so much in the past year, I can't wait to see how much he will change in the next year!

We have also scheduled to get Landon's tonsils taken out on June 9th.  Please keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well.  He may need to stay the night in the hospital for observation.  We'll know more the day of the surgery.  We'll be seeing Dr. Quinlan and Dr. LaCroix before the surgery to see exactly what their thoughts are about everything.  We're hoping that this will be another nice big step towards getting the trach out. :)

Sydney's fourth month

My little baby girl is growing up so fast!  I feel like she was just born yesterday, but on the flip side, I can't remember life without her.  Contradictory, I know.  It's crazy how fast time goes when you are busy loving your children.

Sydney has grown into a cute little girl that loves to watch her brother play.  She really loves when he pays attention to her and gives her hugs.  She's a cuddle bug that likes to be reminded that she is loved.  She gives the best smiles when she wakes up in the morning and the cutest little giggles when you tickle her.  She tries her best to play on her tummy, but prefers to lay on her back and play with her feet.  She is starting to really get the hang of flipping from her belly to her back.  She enjoys having conversations with you and will smile and coo when you talk to her.  She's changed so much in so little time.

I took her in for her four month check up the other day and Dr. LaCroix says she looks great!  She weighs 12 pounds 11 ounces (44th percentile).  Dr. LaCroix also gave us the go-ahead to start giving her rice cereal if we think she needs it.  I'm not sure she "needs" it yet, but we may just try it to see how she does.

Here is a picture of Sydney from our wonderful friend Megan.  Isn't she beautiful??

We took a bunch of pictures and will be getting more soon.  I'll post them as soon as I get them. :)