New Financial Goal

Based upon this picture from Landon's recent hospital stay, it appears as if we should start saving for medical school!!!



For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about when I say "hospital stay," Landon was admitted into Children's Hospital on September 6th for what we learned to be an infection of his hip joint. He was having difficulty walking earlier in the week, which we attributed to a tumble down the stairs. We don't know what caused the bacterial infection - it could have been from the tumble down the stairs or the tumble down the stairs could have happened because of the infection (at that point, though, I hadn't noticed Landon having trouble walking).

He is out of the hospital now and is doing great! He's walking and moving normally. He got discharged with a PICC line, which is an IV that we give him his antibiotics through three times a day. The PICC line will be coming out tomorrow (!!!!) and he will be on oral antibiotics at least until this coming Saturday.

Comfortable on the Couch

Landon's going to be quite comfortable on the couch these next few days. Really comfortable.



The poor guy hurt his leg. We aren't quite sure
how (he did take a tumble down the stairs on Tuesday), but we do know that it's not broken or fractured. Yesterday morning he was very content to sit on my lap and do nothing. This didn't bother me because 1. He had a runny nose and a slight temp and 2. It was nice to cuddle with my 19 month old because those days are few and far between. When he did get up, I noticed he was walking funny but I attributed it to his foot falling asleep. It wasn't until later that evening that Alan and I noticed he really wasn't walking at all and when we encouraged him to he was putting all his weight on his left leg (Sidebar 1: If I were to say, "He was favoring his right leg," would that mean he was walking on his right leg or avoiding it? We debated that last night and are seeking your input! Sidebar 2: It would have been really ironic if Landon did fracture his leg, because right before my first birthday, I fractured my leg and the injury went unknown to my mom until later in the evening when she noticed I was having trouble walking. I've given her plenty of grief for it over the years and had to call her to apologize because I now know that it's possible for your child to have an injury and not be completely aware of it for some time). I called the doctor on-call and she said to bring him in to the office if he was having trouble in the morning.

We took him in this morning and learned that yes indeed, he was having trouble with his right leg (yup, the doctor - not his regular pediatrician, whom I love - confirmed what we had been telling him). He said it was likely a crack in the tibia, which is a fairly common injury for busy babes. Landon had a couple of x-rays taken and no crack could be found. It doesn't mean that a crack is not there; it just means the x-ray didn't pick it up or it's not a crack at all - just a bruised bone.

So for now, we've been spending lots of time on the couch. Landon has no interest in walking and we are not to force him to. We've been reading lots of books and watching Elmo's World. If Landon is not improving by early next week, then we'll take him in to be re-evaluated (hopefully, with our regular pediatrician)!

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And, although Landon is feeling icky right now, he went poo on the potty for the first time today!!!! When he said "potty" to me, I thought he had already gone in his diaper (which is usually how it happens), but we still take him to sit on the potty when he says "potty" (most of the time, like when I'm not too lazy to take him). Anyway, when I took him to the bathroom, there wasn't anything in the diaper. I sat him on the toilet, we sang our songs, and he went!!! Yay for potty progress, when I'm not really trying : )