Landon

Landon

Monday, August 5, 2013

2013 summer pictures

These are just a few pictures from this summer...
 
Eugster's petting farm with Taylor

 
 Harley Davidson Museum

6 months old at Krape Park. He got to swing and rode on the merry-go-round.


7 months old at Davis' pond. The dog is from my Aunt Sharon. It's Landon's fire dog!
 Our little redneck!



Landon's Summer of 2013

7 months old!

I have been a bit neglectful of the blog over the last few months, so I thought I better get caught up. We have had a lot of changes and have had a lot of fun! So, I'll start with Landon's medical changes. Landon has continued to improve throughout the months. He now is around 16-1/2 pounds and 27-1/2 inches. He has been removed from all prescription medications! He had an appointment with his cardiologist at the end of May and we began the weaning process of his heart medications. By early June, Landon was finished with his heart medications. In mid-June, we visited the Pediatric GI doctor and he took Landon off the Zantac. So, now all he takes is 1/2 of a low dose aspirin a day and that is to keep his blood so he doesn't get any clots that could possibly get caught on one of the patches on his heart. We are so happy with how Landon has recovered and we are so thankful for all of the prayers that we have received! Also, we had an unexpected event on Friday night. We were at a funeral dinner and Aunt Kelly was holding Landon while he was sleeping. She noticed something on the floor and pointed at it with her foot. It was his G-tube button! I freaked out, just a bit, which isn't like me. A lot of thoughts went through my head, "We are supposed to put it back in and it's been on the floor! How am I going to clean it?" "I don't have anything here to reinflate the balloon!" So, Nick sent me to get a bandaid and by the time I got back they realized that the balloon had be deflated for a while because the stomach wall had already healed. He wasn't leaking any food out of the hole, and he had just eaten. So, I guess he's done with his G-tube button now also. We were planning on removing it in the middle of August, so I guess we are a little ahead of the game. And, Landon saved us some money by avoiding a trip to Madison and also saved the insurance company some money!

Landon has also met some major milestones over the last few months. Early in May he found his feet and also figured out how to turn the pages of books. He has been very happy with his feet and loves to suck on them. He even managed to comb his hair out of his eyes with one of them. He learned to love his tummy time and learned to roll over in mid May. Until recently, he rolled everywhere. He has become very vocal and likes to make all kinds of noises. By early July, Landon was able to sit up on his own. He is still a bit shaky with it, but he can handle it pretty well. Last Tuesday, he made his first moves on the floor that was not a roll! He now army crawls to things on the floor! He is still working on the coordination for full blown crawling. And on Saturday, I felt his first tooth! I can't believe all the changes Landon has made in the 56 days of summer so far! It's crazy! He is still the happiest little boy and smiles at almost anyone who will talk to him!

I have been trying to make sure we have the best summer possible. I realize that Landon won't remember it, but someday he will be able to look back at the pictures and realize that I tried to make our time together special. Some days it's as simple as going to the park to swing or helping me make his food. Other days we have gone to the zoo, the fair, and even the Harley Davidson Museum. I have had such a great time with him, it will be very hard to go back to school at the end of the month.

One major event we had was on June 9th. We were asked to be part of an event at the American Family Children's Hospital. The Mike McCarthy family is a huge donor to the hospital and have a two-day fundraising event. This year as part of those two days, they McCarthy's were invited to tour the new floors of the hospital. We were also invited to be at that event. They asked us to be there because the services that those floors will offer were services that Landon would have received when he was there. I was under the impression that it would be several former patients...it was not. The CEO of the hospital spoke, then I spoke, then Mike McCarthy spoke! When I say speak, some media was there to cover the event and we were on the news later that night. It was a truly amazing opportunity for us! Being Packers fans, we were just honored to meet the McCarthys. They are wonderful people who care so much about helping children at the hospital. They have no personal connection to the hospital. Mike visited several years ago and decided that his family needed to make the AFCH his family's legacy. We were very honored to be part of the event!
 
Meeting the McCarthys
 
We had to wear hard hats. The AFCH marketing specialist took a similar picture and it will be used by Findorff for their marketing.

The CEO speaking.
 
After the event we stopped on the PICU floor and our surgeon and cardiologist happened to be there. They were quite excited to see Landon. Our cardiologist had seen him 2 weeks prior, but our surgeon hadn't seen him in about 2 months. He was so happy to see Landon looking so healthy.