Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today is Landon's Grandpa's (my dad) birthday! We wanted to wish him a very happy birthday, we hope he had a great day and was able to relax and enjoy himself today. I'll leave out the part about how old he is ;o) We can't wait to see him in January when we go visit to celebrate Landon's 1st Birthday as well!

Landon also recieved his H1N1 booster today, I am very relieved because he is now 100% covered against the virus. I was worried because they said that with his disorder he was conswidered to be in the high risk category and he would have to be hospitalized if he had contracted the virus. But, we are all clear and very thankful to our Pedi! Landon is a bit cranky and sore from the shot, but he is also cutting his 2nd front top tooth so that plays a big role in it too. Here's to hoping it breaks through tonight and brings him some relief.

We are headed to Phoenix tomorrow to meet with the Geneticist and the Metabolic Nutritionist. It should be a very interesting and informative appointment. I will update you on everything once we get back. We will also be meeting up with our good friend Catina and her baby, JT. Landon's Godfather, Gary, will be going to dinner with us as well. We are going to eat at Cheesecake Factory...I cannot tell you how excited I am about this, I really miss Cheesecake Factory. Especially since our house in Frisco was 7 minutes from there, yumm. Pray for a good appointment and no blood work for Landon!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Turkey Day!

Yesterday was Landon's 1st Thanksgiving, and he had a blast! We had dinner at our house with Scott'sgrandma and great friends Amanda (and her kids Aidan & Iam), and Janel (and her son Simon)! We had a blast and ate lots and lots of really yummy food, Landon had his first taste of many new favorites, some he can have a lot and others that will be on a  more occasional basis like home made macaroni and cheese.
We truly learned fromt he last 10+ months that we are really blessed and we have a lot to be thankful for. We are most thankful that even though Landon does have VLCADD, he has the mildest version and it barely effects his day-to-day life. We are thankful and blessed to have our wonderful family and friends both on-line and IRL. We really hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday, and you counted all of your blessings!

I wore myself out today shopping. Amanda and I went to Toys R Us at midnight! We were able to get a lot of what we wanted, but not all of it, which is great! We continues on from there and only stopped to take a 3 hour nap in between. it was crazy, but a lot of fun and we got some really great deals!

Here are some pics from our turkey day celebration:




Landon & Mommy on his 1st Thanksgiving!




My sweet guy playing in his toy box.




Playing with Simon, who also thinks the toy box is fun to play in. Who needs toys, just buy them plastic rubbermaid containers!





Simon & Landon coming up with a plan, in our pantry.





I am very Thankful for my little guy, and that he had such a great first Thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

10 months old!

Landon is doing so many new things now, it is really hard to keep up with them all! He is growing by leaps and bounds constantly, it really is so amazing to watch everything he learns and figures out each day. He's in to everything and curious about everything. His favorite new thing to do is to type on the computer, or to take your mouse and carry it off to random places in the house! He is also walking so much now! He has walked as far as across the room, and he can now turn and walk in a different direction! He loves to babble and has picked up a few new words now. He can say "mama", "dada", "up", he really tries to say "more" and "book"! it won't be long before he will be talking constantly!

I took Landon to Little Gym today to see if it would be something he would enjoy. Since he is constantly moving and getting into everything I figured we should have an outlet in a super fun and safe enviroment with other children around his age. He really had a blast, he was walking alla round, crawling on to and into every thing! They even had exercises that we did together, which I really liked because Lord know I need it too. We are taking Scott to their open house tomorrow to show him all the fun we had, and the neat stuff they have for him to learn, and then we are going to sign him up. I am super excited that he is going to be in Mommy & Me gymnastics. The one thing i have always wanted is for my children to try gymnastics, since I loved it so much. He doesn't have to do it forever, I just want him to be able to experience it. I am also super glad that we are going because it gets us out of the hosue 2 days a week, teaches him to socialize with other children, and I can socialize with other moms, how fun!

Anyways, enjoy some pictures in our adventure of trying to take the monthly picture for the blog and our baby book!



It took a lot of tries to take our 10 month picture. Landon is constant movement these days!


Some distractions were needed. Yes, taping the sign to the couch was absolutely neccessary. You can't tell in the picture how crinkled it is from him grabbing it and playing with it..it was really quite funny.


This was the only shot I could get with his whole face showing. Thank Goodness for Pack-n-Plays and big brother's distracting him.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Prematurity Awareness Day

Today is Preemie Awareness Day. This is close to our hearts, not because of Landon but because of me. I was a preemie and spent a few weeks in the NICU and the hospital before coming home in 1983. Ihad Jaundice pretty bad and Asthma as well. I can only imagine what my parents went through. With everything that we have been through with Landon he has never been in the hospital, and I just cannot imagine what my parents and all the preemie moms out there must go through. Please hug and love your babies today and thank God for them. Please say a prayer today for all of the preemies out there.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

We are going to be Famous!

Well Kind of. I left a testimonial for our Ergo Baby Carrier that we absolutely love and use all the time on facebook since we are fans of them! After going through who knows how many carriers, a good friend of mine suggested that we try the Ergo. I am so glad that she told us about it, it has been the best baby carrier ever. I tell every mom and mom-to-be I can about the Ergo. Our testimonial will not be up for about a week or two, but I will let you know as soon as they post it! I am super excited about it, and really glad that they think we are cool enough to use our story! In the mean time here is there website if you want to check them out:
 http://www.ergobaby.com/


Also, if you get the chance, go check out my friend Megan's food blog. She is giving away a sample pack of this super yummy popcorn. I hope I win it, no offense to all of you...ha ha :o)

http://megansmunchies.com/the-return-of-the-decadent-popcorn-giveaway/

Friday, November 6, 2009

Foods

Now that Landon would rather eat solid foods off our plates, than the baby food puree's that I make or in the jars, our metabolic Nutritionist gave us a list of "acceptable" foods for Landon to eat. Since he has such a mild case of his disorder, he is allowed more fat in his diet and we are allowed to be more lienent around the holidays, birthdays, etc. This list is for normal everyday foods, that he can eat without us having to worry about the fat contents of them. I must say it is nice to have a list of "go to" foods that we know we can feed him without having to find nutrition labels to calculate the fat contents and whether or not the foods are considered low fat enough for Landon to be able to eat.

We also learned how to calculate whether a food is low fat enough for Landon to be able to eat. It's really a much simpler "equation" than I thought it would be, I was thinking "oh, no am I going to be able to do this and learn this so that when I am in the grocery store I will be able to look at the nutrition label and know if he can have that particular food item." Here is our equation:

If there are 50 calories or less per gram of fat, then it is considered low fat enough for Landon to eat. For example:

Item A has 100 calories and 2 grams of fat...then Landon can eat it.
Item B has 175 calroies, and 4 grams of fat...then Landon cannot eat it.

Item B would have to have 200 calories with 4 grams of fat, for landon to be able to eat it. Although if it only had 3.5 grams of fat, for the 175 calories...then Landon could have it. Hopefully this all makes sense.

Now when it comes to the Holidays or going to Birthday parties when he is older Landon is able to eat the food, but in smaller portions. The few days before the Holiday or party Landon will have only non-fat foods from his list or ones we know that he can have from using the equation above. The day after the event also he will have only low fat foods, and then he can go back to his "normal" diet.

It is important to note, that although Landon's body has trouble breaking down Very-Long Chain fats, his body still needs some of those types of fats. The VLC fats are the ones that aide in brain growth, body development, etc. they are important for him to have, but only in limited and controlled quantities. He is also on Levo-Carnitine, which is the amino acid the naturally occurs in our body that helps to move the fats across the cell membranes to be broken down. We are lucky that his body does produce some of this amino acid/enzyme, just not enough.

Now that you have had a full lesson on fat, ha ha, here is the list of foods I talked about when I started this post.

Low Fat Food Choices:


Food Groups &  Recommend Limits:

Meat, Poultry, Fish:

White Meat Only

Reduced fat luncheon meats

No full fat hot dogs or bologna

No fried foods

Other Protein Foods:

Beans and peas, egg whites, egg substitutes

Egg yolks: Occasionly

Avoid: adding fat or lard during cooking

Soy and “meat alternatives”

Peanut Butter Use in moderation

Avoid adding oil during preparation


Milk Products:

Skim or 1% milk only

No 2%, or whole milk

Low fat yogurt, cottage  cheese, sour cream,  and cheese only

No full fat dairy products


Breads and cereals:

Whole grain bread products including cereals, pasta, and pretzels are best

Avoid: trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and fried foods


Fruits and vegetables:

All are excellent choices

Avoid: adding fat (butter, ranch) and fried foods (potato chips, etc)



Desserts:

Fresh fruit, fruit ices, sherbet, frozen low-fat yogurt, gelatin, and angel food cake

Limit: fried foods and full fat desserts

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Chatter Box

We now have a chatterbox on our hands! Landon said his first word yesterday. He crawled up to me and pulled up and looked right at me and said "mama" on several different occasions through out the day! I am so glad that he has started talking, and I must say I am biased and super excited he said "mama" first. Scott and I cannot wait to see what words are to come next. Logically and developmentally wise it will more than likely be "dada" followed by "baba" which is what we call his bottle, so he will be able to easily say it when the time comes.

Landon is also signing a lot more now. He signs, more, milk, and all done. We are well on our way to great communication. Having a mommy with a degree in Speech Pathology doesn't hurt him either, ha ha.

We also had our first run in with Poison Control yesterday. I about had a heart attack when I found him witha bottle of white out, and it was all around his mouth, on his hands, feet, the dog, and the tile floor. I called Poison Control and luckily they said that babies usually tolerate white out very well, and he didn't ingest a whole lot of it since most of the bottle was still full. We had to watch him closely over night because they said it cold cause stomach aches, breathing difficulties, and vomiting (super dangerous for Landon w/ his disorder). Luckily he had none of this, but he definately gave his Mommy a major panic for a few minutes. We have to make sure to keep Zach's door shut from now on, because that is where he found the white out. We are looking to have a bit of a calmer rest of the week.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Trick-Or-Treat

We had a great Halloween at our house, and we hope that everyone else did too. We went down to the pumpkin patch in Wilcox, AZ. We went on a hayride out to the spot where we could pick our pumpkins! Landon enjoyed riding in the wheel barrow thing that you could use to cart your pumpkins that you picked back to the hayride. We picked out 2 pumpkins to replace the ones we had carved for our fall decorations we will keep up through Thanksgiving (pictures to come). We had a great time, and since we went later in the season, it wasn't very crowded at all!


When we got home we went down to our neighbors house, where they had a potluck dinner for our cul-de-sac. Landon was dressed up in his tigger costume, and had a ball as did the rest of us. We hung out there until we took Landon trick-or-treating. For only going to a the houses on our street, he made out like a bandit! We decided not to go to the 3rd Halloween party we were invited too. Landon was tired and a little fussy, his top teeth are just about to break through hus gums too..poor guy, so we hung out at home and handed out candy. You will never believe what we found when we got home. We had left a bowl of candy out since we were not home to pass it out. Well someone took the entire bowl...fine, that's the risk you run when you leave it out like that. But, they took our BOWL with them...really who takes the bowl? It was in our front yard this morning, so they either threw it in the neighbors yard, or their parents made them bring it back. Who knows, but I am certainly glad to have my mixing bowl back.

I will leave you with some pictures from our weekend!


Landon's professional picture in his "Baby's 1st Halloween" Outift.

Landon's professional Picture in his Tigger Costume. He was so happy to be Tigger.

Landon & Mommy on the hayride out to the pumpkins.

Landon & Mommy in the Pumpkin Patch!

Landon & Daddy in the pumpkin patch.

Landon playing "George Washington" in the wheel barrow with Zach.

Landon & Mommy heading out to trick-or-treat.

Tigger and his trick-or-treating ride.

Landon's Loot.