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| The barn cake with pigs, sheep and chicks |
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| Landon's cake |
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| Gracie's Cake |
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| Landon and Gracie hanging out while Liz and I worked on party stuff. |
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| Landon at his cardiology appointment |
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The Birthday Party!
1 year old!
Today is Landon's birthday! It is so cliche but true to say that we cannot believe how quickly it has gone by! He has grown so much and is learning new things constantly. He is finally crawling for real pretty consistently (instead of army crawling) and just started pull himself to standing. He smiles and laughs all the time and loves waving and interacting with other people, especially kids.
We had a party for him this past weekend- we shared the party throwing duties with our friends whose daughter was born the day after Landon so it was double the fun! We did a farm theme and had a petting zoo (with stuffed animals), duck pond and a barn cake with animal cupcakes! It turned out great and everyone had a great time (especially the two guests of honor). Landon made an absolute mess of his cake even though he only ate a few bites of it, while Gracie was much more methodical and careful with hers. I'll post some pictures in a separate post.
We had a cardiology appointment last Thursday and everything heart wise looks great. There are some collateral (extra) veins that we'll have to keep an eye on over the next several months but nothing to be concerned about right now. We'll go back in 2 months for another checkup.
As far as what we've been up to since the last post, we were in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend for Brittany's wedding and enjoyed seeing the whole family and celebrating with Brittany and Josh. We have also been fortunate to be able to do some fun activites with Mended Little Hearts - we went to the Denver aquarium one weekend and the zoo the next! We thought for a few weeks that Landon's ears had cleared up for good but he's had 2 more ear infection in the last few weeks which makes 5 ear infections in 2 months. We have an appointment with ENT in Denver on Friday so they'll do an evaluation and will hopefully be able to give us an idea of whether or not tubes will be effective. We are all ready to be done with ear infections, especially Landon! We feel blessed every day to have such a happy, growing, active boy! It has been a crazy year and we are grateful for where he is today and SO appreciative of all of you who have supported us over the last year (and more)! We have received so many prayers, encouraging words and offers of help and we are starting to understand the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child". YOU are our village and we thank you!
We had a party for him this past weekend- we shared the party throwing duties with our friends whose daughter was born the day after Landon so it was double the fun! We did a farm theme and had a petting zoo (with stuffed animals), duck pond and a barn cake with animal cupcakes! It turned out great and everyone had a great time (especially the two guests of honor). Landon made an absolute mess of his cake even though he only ate a few bites of it, while Gracie was much more methodical and careful with hers. I'll post some pictures in a separate post.
We had a cardiology appointment last Thursday and everything heart wise looks great. There are some collateral (extra) veins that we'll have to keep an eye on over the next several months but nothing to be concerned about right now. We'll go back in 2 months for another checkup.
As far as what we've been up to since the last post, we were in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend for Brittany's wedding and enjoyed seeing the whole family and celebrating with Brittany and Josh. We have also been fortunate to be able to do some fun activites with Mended Little Hearts - we went to the Denver aquarium one weekend and the zoo the next! We thought for a few weeks that Landon's ears had cleared up for good but he's had 2 more ear infection in the last few weeks which makes 5 ear infections in 2 months. We have an appointment with ENT in Denver on Friday so they'll do an evaluation and will hopefully be able to give us an idea of whether or not tubes will be effective. We are all ready to be done with ear infections, especially Landon! We feel blessed every day to have such a happy, growing, active boy! It has been a crazy year and we are grateful for where he is today and SO appreciative of all of you who have supported us over the last year (and more)! We have received so many prayers, encouraging words and offers of help and we are starting to understand the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child". YOU are our village and we thank you!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Summer Vacation Photos
First time seeing the ocean
Landon with his Aunt Jenny and Aunt Brittany (and mommy)
first time in his swim gear on the beach (he wasn't too happy- it was REALLY hot)
meeting his great-grandmother (Grandmama)
Go Wolfpack! Landon with Papa
Landon with Mimi
First time at Krispy Kreme! (he didn't eat anything though)
On a hike
4 generations
Hanging out with grandmama
First time in the pool!
Once he warmed up he loved the water
Happy Father's Day Daddy!
Landon's Baby Dedication at our church
Landon playing with the puppy
Goofy boy playing with shapes
Sunday, August 26, 2012
11 months old!
Clearly Gary and I have not gotten down a good blogging rhythm so our posts tend to be very sporadic. Sorry about that. If I posted as many times as I thought about it, you would all know more about our lives than you care to, I'm sure.
Anyway, yesterday Landon turned 11 months old!! It's hard to believe our baby is almost 1. The last month has been somewhat frustrating healthwise for him because he has had an ongoing ear infection. After 3 rounds of antibiotics, it seems like he's finally kicked it for now but we were told to keep him on a "short leash" since he still has a lot of fluid in his ears. He seems to be doing much better know and is back to eating like his old self pretty much which makes meal times much easier for us.
It's been a busy summer with 2 vacations (NC and Michigan) and 1 more trip for Brittany's wedding. Travel is fun but I'm pretty sure the days of "relaxing vacations" are behind us! We've also taken on a plot at a community garden. When we took it over it had already been planted (lucky for us) so we've been trying to figure out a good schedule over there to water, weed and harvest! It will be fun next year to start from scratch and figure out what we want to plan for the whole season.
Landon has started up physical therapy for the next several weeks to help him build the muscle he needs to crawl and walk. He moves pretty quickly across the room these days, but he still does an army crawl dragging his belly on the ground. He props up on all 4s pretty frequently, but drops down to his stomach when he wants to move. We got him a little musical table this week and he's really enjoyed standing at that and pushing all the buttons to make sounds and music. He is smiling and laughing a lot, which is great to see after he had a crabby few weeks. He's started smacking his lips when he sees something he wants to eat like when I'm getting is food ready or when we are eating something he wants. Gary was sitting on the floor eating cereal for breakfast this morning and Landon climbed up Gary to try and get it smacking his lips the whole time. He still yells a lot and just likes to be loud and make noise. He enjoyed interacting with other babies and other kids. He really loved spending time with his cousin, Abigail, while we were in Michigan. He just loved watching her and laughing at the things she did.
Yesterday we went to the Congenital Heart Walk for the Rocky Mountain region. It was on the campus where the children's hospital is that Landon has spent so much time. It was so bizarre to go up there and not go in the hospital! It brought back memories too, to go in the Chipotle close to the hospital and remember going there for dinner sometimes while he was in the hospital and just thinking about what things were like. We enjoyed getting to spend some time with the other members of the Mended Little Hearts group we are part of and walk with them and celebrate the lives of these brave kids! If you would like to donate to our donation page for the walk, you can do so here. Funds raised will support the missions of the ACHA (Adult Congenital Heart Assocation) and CHF (Children's Heart Foundation).
Summer is winding down and we are excited for fall!
Anyway, yesterday Landon turned 11 months old!! It's hard to believe our baby is almost 1. The last month has been somewhat frustrating healthwise for him because he has had an ongoing ear infection. After 3 rounds of antibiotics, it seems like he's finally kicked it for now but we were told to keep him on a "short leash" since he still has a lot of fluid in his ears. He seems to be doing much better know and is back to eating like his old self pretty much which makes meal times much easier for us.
It's been a busy summer with 2 vacations (NC and Michigan) and 1 more trip for Brittany's wedding. Travel is fun but I'm pretty sure the days of "relaxing vacations" are behind us! We've also taken on a plot at a community garden. When we took it over it had already been planted (lucky for us) so we've been trying to figure out a good schedule over there to water, weed and harvest! It will be fun next year to start from scratch and figure out what we want to plan for the whole season.
Landon has started up physical therapy for the next several weeks to help him build the muscle he needs to crawl and walk. He moves pretty quickly across the room these days, but he still does an army crawl dragging his belly on the ground. He props up on all 4s pretty frequently, but drops down to his stomach when he wants to move. We got him a little musical table this week and he's really enjoyed standing at that and pushing all the buttons to make sounds and music. He is smiling and laughing a lot, which is great to see after he had a crabby few weeks. He's started smacking his lips when he sees something he wants to eat like when I'm getting is food ready or when we are eating something he wants. Gary was sitting on the floor eating cereal for breakfast this morning and Landon climbed up Gary to try and get it smacking his lips the whole time. He still yells a lot and just likes to be loud and make noise. He enjoyed interacting with other babies and other kids. He really loved spending time with his cousin, Abigail, while we were in Michigan. He just loved watching her and laughing at the things she did.
Yesterday we went to the Congenital Heart Walk for the Rocky Mountain region. It was on the campus where the children's hospital is that Landon has spent so much time. It was so bizarre to go up there and not go in the hospital! It brought back memories too, to go in the Chipotle close to the hospital and remember going there for dinner sometimes while he was in the hospital and just thinking about what things were like. We enjoyed getting to spend some time with the other members of the Mended Little Hearts group we are part of and walk with them and celebrate the lives of these brave kids! If you would like to donate to our donation page for the walk, you can do so here. Funds raised will support the missions of the ACHA (Adult Congenital Heart Assocation) and CHF (Children's Heart Foundation).
Summer is winding down and we are excited for fall!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
It's been 6 months. . .
. . . since Landon's last surgery. It's hard to believe- I didn't even realize it until this morning in a doctor's appointment I was asked how old he has at his surgeries and I realized that it's been 6 months. It's amazing to me that at that point he had spent so much of his life in the hospital but now it seems like so long ago and I'm sure he remembers nothing about it. It has been incredible to see him come so far in 6 months and to turn into a somewhat normal happy baby. He is still a little bit behind developmentally in a few areas- we went to a child development center today to see a phsyical therapist and she said that he has low muscle tone and some weak muscles which is probably why he's not really crawling more than an army crawl. We'll do some physical therapy to help with this and hopefully he'll catch up at some point.
Gary mentioned that he was waving in the last post but his newest thing now is clapping. It doesn't actually make much noise but he definitely claps his hands and it makes Gary very happy (anyone that knows Gary pretty well, knows that he claps ALL the time).
He's getting more into watching little videos on the TV like baby einstein, sesame street, etc. It's fun to watch him totally dazed out and in awe of whatever is on the screen. He's a pretty happy kid for the most part and we are so grateful to have had 6 months of no hospital stays!
Gary mentioned that he was waving in the last post but his newest thing now is clapping. It doesn't actually make much noise but he definitely claps his hands and it makes Gary very happy (anyone that knows Gary pretty well, knows that he claps ALL the time).
He's getting more into watching little videos on the TV like baby einstein, sesame street, etc. It's fun to watch him totally dazed out and in awe of whatever is on the screen. He's a pretty happy kid for the most part and we are so grateful to have had 6 months of no hospital stays!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Wave Landon... Wave!
It's been a little while since we posted so I wanted to at least get a short post out there. We just got back from vacation, from which we will have a detailed post in the coming days.
Landon has been doing great over the last month and a half since we last posted. He is growing stronger and taller every day. I think Allison said he was in the 32nd percentile yesterday which is astonishing. It has gotten to the point where I don't really worry about that anymore.
Last week Landon started to wave at us upon request. Some times more quickly than others but an exciting event for us to see him mentally develop. He is still not crawling yet, but "inching" is the best way to describe it. A little closer every day. A little behind the eight-ball there but gets closer and closer. He is putting weight on his legs now and can hold himself up against the sofa/coffee table for longer periods of time. He can't lift himself on his own there, but I have a feeling this will happen once he starts to crawl. He is also learning how to place his blocks into the container (sometimes better than others!).
His attention span is also markedly increasing. It is fun to watch him watch things intently. He loves his bottle, any piece of paper given, our kitchen faucet, any puppet and any animal sound mommy makes. Mom does this way better than daddy. Updated pictures will be coming in the next post.
Gary
Landon has been doing great over the last month and a half since we last posted. He is growing stronger and taller every day. I think Allison said he was in the 32nd percentile yesterday which is astonishing. It has gotten to the point where I don't really worry about that anymore.
Last week Landon started to wave at us upon request. Some times more quickly than others but an exciting event for us to see him mentally develop. He is still not crawling yet, but "inching" is the best way to describe it. A little closer every day. A little behind the eight-ball there but gets closer and closer. He is putting weight on his legs now and can hold himself up against the sofa/coffee table for longer periods of time. He can't lift himself on his own there, but I have a feeling this will happen once he starts to crawl. He is also learning how to place his blocks into the container (sometimes better than others!).
His attention span is also markedly increasing. It is fun to watch him watch things intently. He loves his bottle, any piece of paper given, our kitchen faucet, any puppet and any animal sound mommy makes. Mom does this way better than daddy. Updated pictures will be coming in the next post.
Gary
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December 2012