Are we still in Louisiana?

We woke up to quite a shock this morning. It's not uncommon to happen in north Louisiana but I can only remember once or twice in my lifetime that it happened here. The boys are having a ball playing in it. They can't stay out too long - we aren't exactly prepared with the right kind of jackets and gloves. Snow is not a main factor when picking out winter wear down here.

Our house

Connor

Garrett

The boys having a snowball fight (did I really just say that?)

We are used to extended news coverage for hurricanes but today they are staying on with "Snow Coverage 2008". Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed we don't lose power. The lights keep blinking on and off but so far they are staying. Apparently there are a bunch of loose limbs still left over from Hurricane Gustav that are starting to fall under the weight of the ice/snow. What's really strange is on Tuesday we were wearing short sleeve shirts and this weekend they are forecasting temperatures back in the 70's. What a change a day can make.

Buzz's new learning enviroment

What a long but fun journey to get to this point. Landon has progress significantly since his activation and one year ago I decided to design and build a Website for parents with students on a AV curricula path. This task has been one of joy and humbling work. I thank God on a daily bases for allowing me to help my son's development and it is my personal goal to help others in the same situation.

I have built a new Website called UseMyEars.com. The site is designed to be an eLearning environment for students on an AV track. It has been constructed to align instruction with the Auditory Leaning Guide’s learning outcomes. This guide is a four-year curricula path with a specified set of learning outcomes. The results of these outcomes should be the mainstreaming an aided or implanted student into a normal classroom setting. It is also intended to be a social network for people dealing with issues of deafness.

One of the frustrating things about helping Landon in the early days was the lack of information on the outcomes of unilateral vs. bilateral implanted children. I returned to graduate school with this problem in mind and the result is UseMyEars.com. This site will be researching if there are any significant differences in the educational progress of students based on the technology used to aid hearing. (Hearing aids vs. Unilateral CI vs. Bilateral CI children) In the future, Jennifer and I would like for other parents to have all the information available to present research to insurance companies and make decisions about their children’s future.

Landon's Dad

Landon update.

It's been a while since I've updated on words Landon is saying so I thought I'd take a quick second and post a list of a couple I can remember. One of his favorite words - which he says very clearly - is cookie (surprise); yeah; no; yes mam/sir (when you remind him of manners)' thank you; drink; bread; open; sock; shoe; eye; nose; there you go; pancake; apple; shake; all gone; diaper; cooking. He can also count to 6 - this one was a surprise to me. We were playing with some blocks before his therapist came and while I was stacking them he just started counting them. And then he actually did it for her - he doesn't always like to perform on command. I need to set up a running list somewhere on here where I can just add the new ones as he does them. I know there is a lot more he says, just can't think of them right now.

Landon's 2nd birthday party

Here's a little slideshow of Landon's party last month.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Crazy!!

Okay Val - I got the message:) I know I've been slacking in the update department. I have no clue what I'm going to do with four of them - it is already crazy enough with just three! I don't know how I'm going to add caring for a newborn and sleep deprivation to the mix. October has gone by in a blur. The only thing that saved me is I had gotten Connor 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule in his homeschooling before we left for Disney so we were able to take off while in Florida and last week when we got back. Eric is in grad school so for 3 nights a week he is either at school or working on school at home. He is also teaching 2 classes on top of his regular job so he has 2 nights a week that he is online teaching classes. Add to that me working on weekends, Connor's homeschool, and Landon's therapy - life just never stops.

We are also in the process right now of redoing the bedrooms. We had Landon in one room, Connor and Garrett sharing a room, and the fourth bedroom was Eric's office. With number 4 on the way, Eric decided to give up his office so we've had to combine my work/personal computers to one desk so he could move his computer into our room. We are going to turn his office back into a bedroom for Connor, put Landon and Garrett in the boys room, and then turn Landon's room into the baby's room. Eric's not crazy about all the painting I want to do but after 6 years of blue rooms, I'm excited to get to paint one of them pink finally. On top of all the laundry from being gone for a week and a half, we got back home to find the cool weather is making it's way here so I've been getting bins out of the attic to go through the boys winter clothes to see what will fit for this year.

The boys had a blast at Disney. As soon as I finish downloading all the pictures from the camera I'll make a slide show to post. Landon got to see his favorite - Mickey Mouse. He must have said "Mouse" 5,000 times. On the Mexico ride, when it starts they have a scene with Donald Duck so I pointed to him and just said "Look Landon, Donald Duck." Neither of us said anything for a couple of scenes then when they showed Donald again, Landon said "Momma, duck, quack, quack."

We also had a couple of reasons to celebrate while we were there. The week before, Eric's sister Tammy (who met us there) successfully defended her dissertation and earned her doctorate. CONGRATULATIONS DR. NANNY :) The 29th was Landon's one year hearing birthday. His hearing has become such a normal part of our everyday life the date just seemed to sneak by us. We are having fits with his ears right now - the rechargeable batteries are driving us nuts. Now he tries to put the magnet back on when it falls off or he'll come to us holding his ear for us to fix it. He has also gotten where he doesn't want us to take them off at night. We used to be able to say "Night Night" and he'd say it back and then take them off. Now he fusses when we try to take them off. I'm not sure if it is that he doesn't want to lose hearing or if he doesn't want to go to bed and knows if they come off that's where he is going.

Are you sure?

We got quite a shock today when the ultrasound tech told us Thing 4 is going to be a girl. We figured it was going to be another boy so all I was waiting to hear was everything looked good. After she said everything measured right she asked if we wanted to find out what it was. I had already picked out a couple of names for a boy since I thought that was what it was going to be. Now it's back to square one. I asked if she was sure and she said she had flashed her a couple of times so she had gotten a good look. I still don't think it's sunk in yet. It's going to be weird to look at pink stuff after 6 years of blue.

Update.

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Things have been crazy around here. I was scheduled to work more hours the last few weeks because the census at the hospital has been up. I only work on the weekends - when Eric can watch the kids. I usually work from home (for those who don't know I do medical transcription for the hospital). I had quit working when Connor was born but we needed a way to bring in a little extra money with all the medical bills from Landon so I started doing this. It was working out pretty good since I do it from home. The only problem has been that my cable modem went down with Hurricane Gustav and so I've been having to go up to the hospital to work. It's not bad when it's the first shift but second shift doesn't end until 9:00 p.m. It's pretty spooky up there on a Sunday night - especially since we are located just one set of double doors from the morgue. We stay so busy during the week with the boys homeschooling, Landon's therapy, Eric's graduate classes on top of his job, and then to have to go up there on the weekends - the days are just flying by.

We are having Landon's second birthday party this weekend. It's a combination of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (he loves the show) and Halloween. I've been busy trying to get everything ready for it. We had a wedding this past Saturday that Eric was standing in so trying to get everything ready for both of those plus our trip has also kept us pretty busy. We are leaving for Disney World in 3 weeks. Yes - we are going again. Eric has to go to Orlando for a conference for work so we just added some days to the beginning to stretch it into a family vacation (especially since his work will be paying for a good part of it). His sister Tammy graciously offered to fly in during the middle of the week so she could help me take the boys to the parks. I was going to try and take them myself but I am definitely thankful she's going to come and help. Just the thought of doing it alone was making me tired but I knew the boys wouldn't want to stay cooped up in the hotel room all day. Nanny to the rescue!!!I'm especially glad since yesterday I just found out I'm anemic. Never had it with any of the other pregnancies but we couldn't figure out why I was so exhausted this go around. The boys outlast me at night. I went for my last checkup and found out the lab screwed up the first time around and they had to run the bloodwork again (did I mention I HATE needles?) Anyway, they called yesterday and said it showed I was anemic so the doctor put me on an iron supplement. Hopefully it will start kicking in before we leave for the trip. We pretty much go from sun up to sun down when we are at Disney so maybe I need to take double doses :)