Walking

Well, I don't have much time. My parents are coming tomorrow for a week and I just thought that I should get this out there before life gets crazier and I never post about it at all! The other day, I was talking on the phone and Landon wanted to get my attention. The way he has been doing this lately if we are watching tv is to put his face in front of ours and make us look at him. He thinks this is hilarious. So on Sunday, I was on the phone and he was using our couch as a drum set. The next thing I know, he is walking over to me. It was only a couple of steps, but he did it on his own with no provocation from anyone else.
The next day I went over to help my girlfriend that is on bed rest for the afternoon. We were sitting on the couches visiting and the boys were all watching tv. I was telling some story or something when out of the corner of my eye, I saw Landon kind of stamping his feet and then the stamping turned into steps. He was staring at the tv and just started walking towards is. He took about 8 steps before crawling over to the tv. YAY!!!!
He hasn't done it for James yet, but I am sure it won't be long now. Can't wait!

Not ready for this...

Do you see what is in his hand? Yeah, I am not ready for that...

Replacing the front porch

Our front porch has been in poor shape since we moved in, but the snow this year has pretty much killed it. The rail on the side closest to the drive way couldn't take the weight of the snow and the entire bottom rail pulled free of all the posts. The support post on that side has looked pretty rotted for a while, so James decided it was time to replace it. He learned how to support the roof while he was changing the old post out with the new post from The Handyman Family magazine (awesome magazine). He took the car jack out and supported a 2x4x8 with it and braced that against another 2x4. At first I thought he was really smart, but I was anxious about it. When he told me hours later it was a tip from Handyman, I just laughed and said, "Why didn't you tell me that before you started?! I wouldn't have been worried."
Anyways, he took down the first post and out of the entire 4x4, there was one corner that wasn't rotted. The day before he was standing on the porch roof getting leaves out of the gutter. He doesn't know how it supported his 200lbs. Anyways, we spent most of the weekend outside. Landon had fun. He did not like the nail gun, which is funny because the compressor is super loud and that didn't bother him at all. Anyways, they are now all replaced, all of them pretty rotten to some degree, but the first was the worst. James tapped it against the brick pillar at the end of the driveway and it snapped in half! Glad we decided to do this.

James took the first post down, see his support from the car jack?
Landon playing with some flower pots

I planted some flowers while James worked

James disgusted with the rotten posts

It looks like they weren't even one entire piece, there are several seems we found in them

This was the last one, not too much rot here, but you get the idea about how bad it was.

Left side, see the missing spindles?

Landon somehow got a leaf stuck in his mouth. When I pulled it out, the entire stem was in his mouth. Had to get a picture!

Playing in the dirt, yes, he took his first taste. I think he liked it...

I caught him a few times this weekend sucking his thumb. Where did that come from???

Laughing at James

James watering our tiny Maple tree.

Helping Daddy water the flowers.

Landon's First Easter Egg Hunt

James has a co-worker that has his own chickens and he gave us a dozen right before Easter. Since they were already blue and orange, we didn't have to die them, we just boiled them. Then James went out and hid (and I mean HID) them. I could only find one scanning the yard. Silly boy. I helped Landon get the first one, but since I couldn't find the others, James took over. He had a ton of fun. This is really the first time he has been outside in our front yard for any amount of time. He also has learned that Mom and Dad's fingers are great walking aids. He just latches on and off he goes. The other day, I was sitting on the couch, he grabbed my finger and just started walking off. We are now trying to break that habit.

Anyways, James got an egg salad recipe off the Internet and it was AWESOME! I am sure that the organic eggs made it that much yummier. Seriously, the taste is so much stronger and delicious.

What is this?

It is kinda cool

Loves to walk holding our hands

One handed is much trickier

Look at that silly grin

I love to watch him inspect things

What's over here?

Oh, I don't like this uneven ground!

Another one!

Look at that body language! He didn't want to go near the angel hair

What do I do now?

I think he had fun, what do you think?

Landon tried to juggle a bit later... it didn't turn out so well

First hair cut

I don't know about you, but those scissors look scary to me!
Trying to cut

Look at that face!

We finally had James cut with smaller scissors and I held Landon. And after it was all said and done, James threw the hair away!!!

Not over yet...

After the hospital, we went home and all went to bed. The next day, Landon looked great, so the my Pediatrician and I decided just to do Benadryl and no steroid. The next day, I woke up to this:

He woke up like this

Face

Leg

I gave him Benadryl and the steroid and expected it to work as quickly as it did at the hospital. Well, he woke up from his nap looking like this:

After his nap

Getting worse...

Neck

Funny drinking position

With the steroid we had quite a thirsty little boy...

Feeling better enough to play with Daddy.

During all of this, he popped 2 teeth on the bottom and has two very swollen gums up top.

Penicillin Allergy

The first pictures I took when I realized that he had hives and not a bug bite.
This was at the hospital. They got really bad.

Oh! Crocodile tears, not a happy boy at all!

James trying to distract Landon with his zipper.

Got the medicine in, saw immediate results, now we are ready to go home!

So, we now know that Landon is allergic to Penicillin. YUCK! We woke up Tuesday morning after the wasp sting and he had a welt on his face that I thought was just a bug bite. I had even remembered him crying a bit the night before, but going back to sleep. Then I changed his morning diaper after James left and saw hives all over his legs. I freaked out, called James and my friend Heather and then my Mom trying to get some comfort and advice until the Dr. office opened. When they opened, of course they just said to Benadryl and couldn't get me in to see the Dr. until the next morning. We did Benadryl and they continued to multiply. So glad I started taking pictures right away, it helped me to monitor the spreading instead of trying to rely on memory. We eventually went to the Urgent Care and they gave us a steroid. Got it filled, and gave Landon a banana to eat with it (since it was time for a snack and the steroid is supposed to be taken with food.) and he threw it up immediately. Great! So, James came home and we tried everything. An hour and a half later we just decided to go to the Emergency Room. They gave him an anti-nausea medicine and then the same thing (except it didn't smell horrible and seemed to taste good to Landon) and immediately we saw results.

The bad thing was, for a week he wouldn't eat banana. He is now fine and eating them again.

Apparently, the first reaction from Penicillin is mild (I now recall a mild rash after finishing Amoxicillin, that I thought was a tomato allergy), the second is moderate (obviously the Augmentin that he was just on), and the third could be anaphalactic shock. Stressing me out!

I think I got at least 10 more white hairs that week. I say that week because it isn't over yet!...