Aftermath

Here's a few pictures we took on the way to my parents. These aren't from the worst part of town either.


These are the pilings for a new bridge they are building over the Amite River. It will be high like a normal bridge and you can usually see down to the bottom where they go into the dirt. This is the new threat from Gustav - flooding.


Why there is no power.


This sign is in better shape then most.


This is a common site - the bottom of a tree that was pulled up roots and all.


A church that lost it's steeple.


There's 3 trees in a row that were pulled up at the roots. The front one landed across a truck.

Go away Gustav!!

WE HAVE POWER!!! We are one of a very small few who have power in Louisiana. It came back up last night around 9:00 p.m. 2 1/2 days in Louisiana heat and humidity with no power was miserable and unfourtunately it looks like a lot of people will be in it for a lot longer. My parents and in-laws are both about 40 minutes away from us in opposite directions and they don't have any. There is a chance my in-laws could get it this evening. Their water/sewer is all run on power so they have no water/bathrooms. They were staying at Eric's sister's even though she didn't have power she had water. They came here last night after we got power. My parents could be weeks without it. There are tons of lines down over by them. Luckily they have a generator so they can run a fan and keep the refrigerator cool. We told them they could come here but they don't want to leave the house since they can't set the alarm system.

I have to say this one was 10Xs worse than Katrina. The only one I remember that comes close was Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the destruction from this one is just so much worse. And it wasn't just that a bunch of trees fell over. Massive trees - 50 to 75 years old at least - that looked like they could withstand anything were just ripped out the ground like they were just twigs. They would be laying on their sides with the whole root system pulled up and we saw plenty where the bottom of the tree you see (the dirt and root system) was taller than the house it was laying next to. I'm going to take some pictures to put on here because you can't believe it unless you see it.

Luckily our subdivision is relatively new - when we built here 8 years ago there was only a handful of houses here. There's huge trees around the outer part of the subdivision but no one has really huge trees in their yards so no one had trees falling through their houses here. We lost all the siding facial trim around the back of the house and the roof has a lot of damage but other than that we were very lucky. The wind was amazing - it sounded like it could rip the whole roof off. We're going to brave the store today and replenish what we lost in the refrigerator. We tried to stop yesterday but the only thing open around here is Walmart and the line wrapped around the outside of the building to get in.

We had another bout of bad rain this morning and were worrying about power going off again. Come to find out, it was another band of rain from Gustav. Is he ever going to go away??? On one hand the rain is good because it keeps the temperature down a little but now there is a threat of flooding because of all the rain. It looks like it is going to be a while before things are back to normal around here.

Luckily this time around we had a great governor in office. The media loves to try and blame Katrina on the federal govt and Bush. What they don't publicize is that Bush tried to get our then governor Blanco to evacuate New Orleans days before Katrina hit and she refused. She waited until the day before to do anything. She didn't declare the state of emergency or sign the paperwork that would allow the federal government to come in and help until after Katrina and the levee breaks. We keep hearing how different it was this time, preparation was so much better, communication is better, just totally different. Then comes the unappreciative people. We started hearing this morning some people from New Orleans fussing because they were forced to evacuate and it was for nothing so next time they aren't leaving. Doesn't matter they got lucky this time and it didn't hit as bad there. Doesn't matter that the whole time the storm was going on they were watching the levees thinking they were going to breach again. Just because they got lucky this time and didn't have the devastation like Katrina they think it was a waste to leave. Some people never learn.

Gustav is coming!

Well, it looks like we won't get away from this one. Gustav is breathing down our necks and getting closer every hour. It's kind of spooky that it's happening so close after the third anniversary of Katrina. Let's keep our fingers crossed it doesn't hit us too hard - and we get power back soon after because it is just too hot right now to be without air for long.

Thing 4?!

Well, just when we thought we were on the downward track of sleep interrupted nights and diapers God decided to give us a reminder of who was in control. Of course He waited until I sold all of our baby stuff and maternity clothes at a garage sale and I had finally made it back to my pre-kid size and actually bought some new shorts for the summer. We've taken a while to announce it this time because I'm still trying to get used to the idea but it looks like we'll have a new little blessing around the beginning of March. We've got conflicting opinions around here - Garrett wants a sister and Connor wants another brother. I have a feeling Connor may get his wish. When we get together for the kids birthdays, there's 15 kids between both sides and only one is a girl. Now comes the hard part of thinking up names. We were still deciding on Landon's middle name while I was in labor at the hospital. Any suggestions?

Terrible 2's already??

The last couple of weeks Landon is starting to show a big stubborn streak. Lately he has wanted nothing to do with his therapy - especially at home. When I try to work with him with some of his toys he'll pick the toy up, put it away where it goes, then grins at me. He gives you this look like "yeah - I know what you want me to do but I'm not in the mood so forget it!" His other thing when I try to do stuff is he'll just leave the room and go into his brothers room. When we see our AVT, he will do a couple of the sounds and then just stops until she moves on to a new activity. He seemed to loose interest very fast. Today he actually had one of his better sessions in a while. He went through three whole activities making all the sounds/words she asked him. After the first activity he did try telling her "bye-bye" and waving - guess he figured he had done enough :) We had talked at his last session (she had taken off last week with school starting for her kiddos) that maybe he was getting bored since we had been doing a lot of the same things over so she came today with new sounds/words and new activities and it seemed to work. Guess I'm going to have to come up with new things to do with his toys here and see if he's just bored with what we've been doing.

He's also started taking his implants apart - especially in the car. We'll look back at him and he'll smile with the battery falling out of his mouth. He knows what he's doing too because if I catch him just starting to take them apart, he says "uh oh" and tries to put it back on his head. Guess we'll have to break out his hats again for in the car. At home if he's playing in the boys room with them they know to watch him. They call out "Ear alert - Ear alert" when he takes them off. He loves wearing the CI's so I think it's just him being bored and it's something to play with. When I show them to him in the morning he climbs in my lap for me to put them on.

The baby gate we had between the living room and kitchen broke 4-5 months ago and we didn't get a new one because he really never went in there unless we were in there. I had to go last week and buy a new one. He discovered he could climb the chairs and get on top of the table. We can't keep the ladder down on the boys bunk beds because he'll climb up to the top bunk. He's definitely keeping us on our toes.

Testing

Our AVT did a preschool language scale test on Landon so we could get an idea of where he is at in his progress. The test is just a universal preschool language test that could be given to any child - it does not factor in his hearing loss or anything like that. Here is an idea of where he is at:

**Keep in mind he had a hearing age of 8 mths at the time.

Age at time of test - 1 yr 9 mths
Auditory comprehension - 1 yr 3 mths age equivalent
Expressive communication - 1 yr 10 mths age equivalent
Total language score - 1 yr 6 mths.

He is definitely making up for lost time. Our AVT said she didn't know whether to smile or cry. She was happy he scored so well but sad because she said we wouldn't be with her for a whole lot longer. She said towards the end of the year we would redo it and depending on how he does we may cut back to every other week for therapy. She thinks his comprehension is better than what he tested just from what he does weekly in therapy but he was in one of his stubborn moods that day and wouldn't do stuff that we know he can.

Way to go Buzz!!!

4th of July

Hope every one had a good 4th of July. It's become a tradition to spend the day at Eric's sisters house. She lives right next to the levee so we can see all the festivities across the river in downtown Baton Rouge without actually having to go fight the crowds. We usually go swimming but the weather didn't cooperate this year. They do a mock battle reenactment with the USS Kidd and luckily the rain decided to stop then so we headed outside to watch. When the first bomber plane flew over head, Connor took off running for the house with his fingers in his ears yelling "They're gonna bomb us!!!" Every time one would pass over Landon would point at it and make the "AAAHHH" sound we do for the airplane. The boys had a blast - spending most of the day playing a new Wii game Nanny had bought. They liked the fireworks show - except for Connor who watched with his fingers in his ears. Landon didn't blink the whole time and then at the end clapped. Last year he didn't hear them - even with his hearing aids. What a difference a year makes.

Landon tries to say most of what you tell him now. He'll say something and if we say the right thing back he gets this big smile on his face and either laughs or gives us a kiss. I keep his listening toys in separate plastic containers - all the fish in one, all the snakes, etc.. He now will pick up one of the containers, look at what is in it, and says the sound for the what is in it. He does the snake, fish, hop (for the bunnies that jump), round and round and round for the tops, cut (for the velcro food and knife), and ducks. The others aren't in see-through containers so I'm going to have to go to the store and get some more clear ones and see if he'll start doing it for more. His favorite thing right now is the Little People house. He loves to put the mom and dad in the chairs, shakes his finger and says "sit down". It's worked out good for us because when he stands up in the tub now we just shake our finger and he sits down.