Countdown to #4

We're in the countdown for the arrival of #4. When I went Friday I was 1 1/2 cm dilated so hopefully the end won't be too far away. Landon went to the doctor Friday for his 2 year checkup. He's been off the normal schedule ever since his surgery - he had to have a couple of the shots before they would do the surgery but there was some he couldn't have until he had passed 12 mths so we got off schedule. He got 3 shots - he had an extra one because with the implants he has to have the pneumovax after he turned 2 for meningitis. He's now caught up and doesn't need anymore shots until he'e 5. He's been pretty lousy feeling since - running fever, laying around, and not eating much. Today he seems to be bouncing back some. He hasn't had any fever since during the night and is actually playing in his room right now.

We've got a couple of videos we've found that are actually helping him with his language. I'll usually put one on while I'm doing Connor's school to keep him occupied and when we are riding in the car it keeps him entertained but is also reinforcing words we are working on with him. He's been watching the ABC video from the Brainy Baby series and Baby Wordsworth from the Baby Einstein series. They both have a lot of vocabulary words and pictures. At first he would just repeat the words after they would say them, but now he is starting to say the words before they do - just by seeing the picture.

Putting words together

We've noticed in the last 2 weeks or so Landon is starting to put more words together. For example, instead of just pointing at my bottle of water and saying either drink or water, he said "drink mama's water". We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for a birthday party Saturday night and when we switched him over to his P4 program (the one that takes out more background noise for him), Eric asked if that was better and he said "Yes, better". He always says thank you when you give him something, but today he was helping me put the water bottles in the refrigerator and I told him thank you, he said "your welcome". He'll pretty much repeat anything you tell him to so it's the things like this - where it is something he speaks on his own - that really catches our attention.

New words

Landon's new word last week - chocolate. He likes to add Nestle chocolate to his milk. He also does shake-shake-shake after you put the lid on. We went to Target Sunday morning and I got a reminder just how much of a "therapy baby" he is. When we were going down the aisle with the kids bedding, he kept going "who's that?" and then would answer himself with Mickey Mouse, Cars, etc. It was hilarious. He's also started when we are leaving a store will say "where's the car" and then when he sees the van says "there it is". Connor got a Nerf dart tag game for Christmas and I'm not sure which one likes it more - Connor or Landon. He's already figured out how to slide the top back to make it shoot. The boys don't like it because he's still learning not to point it at people. It doesn't hurt them - just annoys them when they are trying to watch tv or play on the computer.

Just for fun, I got on our Wii fit the other day ( I haven't done it since I found out I was pregnant) just to see what it would tell me. There is no where on there to put in things like that so it just thinks I gained XX pounds in 8 months. Amazingly I was still in the normal range for the BMI but it did tell me I hadn't reached my goal and needed to try to work out more to help me lower it. I told Eric I was going to get on it right before we go to the hospital then do it when I get home and see what it says about losing 20+ pounds in 2 days. It should be pretty funny. Only a few more weeks to go.

Happy New Year!

Where did 2008 go? This past year just flew by. I can only imagine how fast time is going to fly with a new baby in the house. Landon's personality has just blossomed this past year as his language has grown (as has his temper.) It's so much easier now that he can tell you what he wants - or tell us yes or no to what we ask if it's something he doesn't know the words for. The boys have been bouncing off the walls with all the Christmas activities so there has been a lot of correcting going on around here. Landon picked up on it - and now if Connor doesn't answer him fast enough he will call "Connor Matthew" instead. He's also picked up on one of the boys bad habits. He was in his room the other night and Eric called him - he used to come as soon as you would call his name. Instead all we heard from his room was "What?". I looked at Eric and we both busted out laughing. We did manage to stop long enough to tell him he needs to say Sir instead but at the same time it was neat to hear him do something so normal for kids. I'm not sure the other boys are happy about his expanding language. He's now able to come tell us if something happens (like they take a toy away) and which brother did it.

It seems he's finally growing into his "ears" too which is making life a lot easier. He now wears the full BTE setup (processor and controller) all on his ears. It's a lot easier not having all the wires and controllers on his back like we used to. We have also switched to using the snugfit that came with his start up kit. Initially it made the ear piece too big to stay on so we had switched to the mic lock tubing and toupee tape. Now we don't even have to use the toupee tape. They stay on pretty much all day by themselves with the snugfit.

Now that Christmas is over we are trying to get the baby's room finished and get everything we need for her arrival. We are assuming she'll probably make an early appearance - Connor was at 39 weeks and Garrett and Landon were both during my 38th week. Which would mean there is only 8 more weeks to go - scary thought. The older two boys are excited - they love feeling her kick. Landon still doesn't have a clue what's going on - but neither did the other two when they were his age. The other night he was laying with me and must have pushed too hard on the side of my belly and she gave him a big kick. He sat up, put his hand on my stomach and said "Uh-oh" 2 or 3 times. When he layed back down he made sure he wasn't laying up against my stomach - guess he didn't want to get kicked again :)

This is the picture that Eric wanted me to use for our Christmas card. It pretty much sums up the three boys. Of course the picture right before this explains it all.

(Connor picking on Landon just before Landon got him back.)

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.