Doctor Trips and Bike Rides

So it's been a while since I've been on the internet. I have a few minutes to post a quick update. Landon is doing well. He gave Kevin and I a little scare last week, but I'm happy to report that he's back to his old self running circles around me. He awoke in the middle of the night last week with a bloody nose, fever, and coughing. The bloody nose really had us freaked out. We knew it was nothing too serious because it didn't bleed too terribly bad, but with it being accompanied with a fever and cough I was a little panicked. Just to be safe we took Landon to the doctor the following morning. He was no longer coughing and only had a slight fever so all was well. The bloody nose was either from allergies or nose picking. Both are high on Landon's list so who knows what caused it. I'm sure the doctor thought we were crazy for bringing him in, but we would rather bring him and it wind up being for nothing rather than not bringing him in and miss warning signs to a potential problem. So all is now well with Landon. 

His favorite activity as of lately is to ride his bike along side mine. It's such a blast riding along side him. It's still weird not having to pull him along behind me in the bike trailer. Landon was smiling at me so much today while we were riding that he didn't see a curb or hear my warnings and his bike stopped when it hit the curb and Landon continued going. His knees and elbows are a little scraped, but after a few minutes of walking his "bad" bike he decided it was easier to just ride it home. We've had so much rain lately that it is nice to be able to get outside and go for a bike ride, even if it is just for thirty minutes or so. 

I promise soon enough I will get some more posts and pictures up.

It's Pouring

Today is another one of those days where we should have stayed in bed. We woke up bright and early to go to Finder's Keepers. It's a huge consignment sale that we go to twice a year. We can usually stock up on a whole season's worth of clothing for Landon for under $100. Unfortunately, this year the money that I had saved for the sale had to go to pay for a doctor appointment. I was able to get Landon a few things just not quite everything that he will be needing for the summer. I did find him a toy vacuum that he can push around as I am vacuuming. He loves to help me vacuum, but in all honesty it can be a bit of a pain at times. Now he can push his own vacuum along side of me. He absolutely loves it. He pushed it all over the sales floor and has not put it down since. I was also able to find his birthday outfit, or at least half of it. I then came across an adorable Curious George outfit and it looked brand new in the store. Of course the terrible lighting there is deceiving. When I brought it home and pulled it out of the bag I noticed a hole right in the front of the shirt. I was so disappointed. You can't return anything. I wish they had better lighting. Every time we come back with at least one outfit that we find a stain on when we put it in natural lighting. A stain I can work with, but a hole I can not. At least the hole is small enough to where it can become an outfit that he wears to the park.

The worst part of the day was my doctors appointment. I had to use the money that I had been saving for Landon's summer wardrobe, his birthday party, and then some. I don't have any health insurance so seeing an actual doctor is out of the question. I had little choice in the matter as of lately. I was able to see a doctor who would be able to use my ct scan from the hospital so that I wouldn't have to pay for an ultrasound. After I pay the ridiculous amount of money to see the doctor he tells me that I will still need to have an ultrasound done because the ct scan does not show everything clearly. I hate that I wasted all of the money that could have gone to other things these next two weeks. I can't get the ultrasound done because that is another couple of hundred dollars and then I will have to pay the doctor again for another appointment just for him to tell me the results of the ultrasound. I don't know why I even bothered with this appointment. It's not like I can afford the needed surgery anyways. I spent money that I did not have to still be left untreated. When it rains it pours. At least Landon has been on his best behavior these past couple of days. I think he knows that I am dealing with a lot of pain and he has been relatively well behaved lately.

Doctor Update Pt. 2

We took Landon to see his new pediatrician yesterday. Kevin and I both walked away with good feelings about this doctor. I think we have finally found someone that we feel is a right fit for us. What I love most about this office is that there are only two people who will be overseeing Landon's care- the doctor and a nurse practitioner. There will never be a guessing game when we go to Landon's appointment about which one of the 6 different doctors will be seeing him. I also loved that they took so much time with us yesterday. They were really thorough with everything and we spent a lot of time talking with them about some of our concerns. We never once felt rushed. We did mention to them that Landon still is not talking. He was talking at one time and then stopped when he was about 15 months old. He refuses to say anything other than "Momma". I think he stopped talking as a way to shut down. I think it is his way of dealing with a particular situation. I definitely can't fix the situation on my own and I am still unsure about whether someone else has any interest in fixing the situation. I am glad that the doctor seems to feel like there is nothing wrong with Landon and that he is just being a little lazy. They did do a screening for autism because babies don't generally just stop talking, but we knew it would come back that he was just fine. They even commented that Landon was fine before my filling out the autism screening forms because Landon is able to follow all commands. The doctor asked Landon to lay down on the table so he did, but he layed down on his side. So the doctor then asked Landon to roll over to his back and he did just that. Landon can hear just fine and is able to perform any task that is asked of him. He is able to point out all of his body parts when asked and he can even imitate animal sounds when asked. He can now growl like a tiger, baaa like a sheep, ney like a horse, and thanks to Daddy he can even spit like an elephant. You may be thinking, spit like an elephant? Yeah, those were my thoughts exactly! Kevin tried teaching Landon how to make an elephant sound by doing some weird thing with his lips. Landon can't make the sound just yet, but he has learned that by trying to make the sound that he can spit at people. If Landon spits on you, then please thank Kevin for that! I am taking no credit for this new found hobby of Landon's. Landon may be regressing when it comes to his speech, but he is making up for it in many other areas. He has now learned what a circle, square, and triangle are. We are still working on the difference between an octagon and a pentagon. He has a shape shorter that we sit down and play with for about 20 minutes everyday so that I can teach him his shapes. I think once he gets all of the shapes down then we will move on to the different colors followed by his numbers and letters. Landon has also become very good at putting puzzle pieces together. He pulls his puzzle out everyday and puts it together within seconds. Once he is done he will give each of the animal puzzle pieces a high five and then carry it back to the toy box to put it away. Landon still loves to read and will often bring a book over to me and then sit in my lap so that I can read to him. He has very little patience though and often turns the pages before I finish the sentence of each page. I think patience will be another thing that we will work on this year.

6 Month Check Up

Landon had his 6 month check up today. He is now 20 lbs 4 oz and 28 inches long. He only put on a few ounces, but grew another full inch! At this rate he will be taller than me by the time he is 3! Landon also received 5 shots today...poor baby. On top of that he also got his second bottom tooth in today. He seems to be in no pain from any of it. He's such a trooper. Landon is beckoning me for his final feeding so it's time to close the computer and stop blogging.