I'll start off with some recent pictures. Since pictures are worth a thousand words I'll share some of Landon's latest adventures.
2nd Birthday Party- Bubble Guppie Bash
He decided he would rather mow most of the time...
..And blowing out the candles (which I always forget and have to have someone run out and buy!)
Myrtle Beach 2014 - He had such a better time at the beach this year since he was able to walk.
Adventures at St. Louis Zoo
The many faces of Landon..
..and his newest obsession- boots. He only wants to wear boots.
As you can see he got his first real haircut. It was actually an accident. His hair looked cute long, but the back was growing faster and it was starting to look like a mullet. I tried to trim it up and botched the job, so I tried to fix it with clippers. He went crazy and wouldn't sit still and I accidentally buzzed a streak down the middle of the back of his head. The only way to fix it was to buzz the rest. He looks really blonde with his hair short, and it really made him look grown up.
Our summer has been going great. We have been doing the best kinds of physical therapy- hours of swimming and playing at the park. He loves to swim this year but doesn't like to do any work. He floats around the pool helplessly and tells his brothers to bring him toys. At the park he is able to do most things. Although his balance when he is walking and running is still so-so, his balance when he is climbing to go down a slide is amazing. He finally understands the dangers of falling off the edge and so he is able to play with Carson and Austin on the bigger things.
His expressive language is unbelievable. He's verbally expressing all of his wants and needs, commenting, requesting, and using 1-3 word phrases. I hear new words about every 10 minutes. His new favorite things are to tell me "no no" when he doesn't like what I'm asking him to do, and to tell himself "no." He asks for drinks of my tea and then answers his own question- "tea? no." After 2 years of rejection, he has finally decided he likes "ewww-t" or "juice" as we commonly call it. He always wants "more ewww-t mom." Just like his brothers, he is hilarious and adds even more laughter to the household now that he is talking.
Speaking of the household, like I mentioned before, it has expanded again. In March we finished classes and paperwork to get our license to become foster parents. In the beginning of May, a beautiful 2 year old girl "Princess S" came to live with us. It is so awesome having a girl in the house. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed buying pink, frilly things, painting her toenails, and putting bows in her hair! She is absolutely perfect. She's girly, but she also likes to keep up with the boys and doesn't mind getting dirty. We're enjoying our time with her and trying to fill every day with fun and quality time like it will be our last, although we are planning to adopt her if she is unable to return home.
It has worked out perfectly that she is the same age as Landon. They enjoy playing together about half the time, and the other half the time they fight like brother and sister. Landon hadn't spent much time around children his age before she came, so her being here modeling good use of language is probably what prompted him to start talking so much more.
Landon is still in good health and growing like a weed. He's now wearing 3T clothing! We had a scare a few weeks ago when his colostomy prolapsed. I emailed Dr. Levitt, and being the amazing surgeon that he is, he emailed me back at 11 at night to let me know that it was okay. Apparently it is more of a cosmetic issue and nuisance than medical issue. As scary as it was seeing his intestines protruding several inches outside his body, his colostomy continued to function and it returned to normal overnight. It was prolapsed 4 more times since then, but every time it has gone back down within a few hours. For now we are just keeping an eye on it. Prolapsing a few hours a week shouldn't be a problem, but if it gets worse and starts negatively affecting his quality of life we will have to consider reversing it sooner rather than later. We talked about going ahead and reversing it this summer or possibly in December, but decided we are too uneasy about the "what-ifs." Life is so good for him right now and he has so much momentum going with his development it's too scary to rock the boat and possibly end up dealing with chronic illness again.
As long as everything is going well I will drop in from time to time with some quick updates and news. I'm enjoying writing these type of posts rather than discussing hospital stays, surgeries, and difficult decisions. Thanks again to everyone that has followed Landon's story and kept our family in your prayers!
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