Pumpkin Farm Times Two

We took two trips to the Pumpkin Farm this year!  The first time was with Halle and her friend while Daddy and Landri stayed home recooping from surgery.  We are so lucky to have an awesome pumpkin farm here with animlas to feed, a couple haunted houses, a huge corn maze, pig races, hay to jump in, and a ton more!  The girls had a blast running around the farm and we topped off the day with Halle picking out a 25 pound pumpkin!  "Isn't this place awesome??!!" was Halle's theme for the day! The pic is of her and her friend Chloe "peacing out". :-)  Loved it!

The second trip was our whole family on an evening trip to the farm sponsored by the AEAs in our area for the families of deaf and hard of hearing kids.  It was a cold rainy night, but they had a nice warm party room where we ate dinner and played games.  Of course....do you ever realize that it is cold outside when you are 8?  never!  When we very first got there Landri's Teacher of the Deaf snatched Landri out of our arms to introduce her to everyone so Greg, Halle and I took the time to run around the farm and had so much fun even in the cold.  Halle made a buddy there and they went in the haunted house like 1000 times.  The best part was that we got to connect with families in our area that have already been in our shoes.  A few of them were families that I called right after learning of Landri's deafness so that they could tell me "everything will be okay".  It was so great to meet them and their wonderful kids in person.  What an awesome new family we have created around us!!  Very cool!

We have a very busy week to come....Halle has dress up days everyday at school for Red Ribbon Week, Marion is in the football playoffs, Halloween, and Halle's 2nd Cheer Competition.  Go Go Go!!  Thank goodness everyone is fairly healthy and as far as I know....only Landri's Teach of the Deaf Therapy appt, but NO doctors!  Wooooo hooooo!! 

In the days to come I will post more on how Landri's implant will work and hopefully let y'all know her activation date which is when they will turn her implant on and she will hear sound for the first time!  Then we can all start a countdown!

On a very very side note...Amber...the apple crisp rocked....thanks so much!

Peace out!

Celebrating Surgery with a Cheeto

Last Friday Landri had her second Cochlear Implant surgery!  We are so very happy to report that Landri's left ear had a very successful surgery.  It took only about 3 hours and was "text book".  They bring in a team from electrophysiology to test the implant during surgery and her auditory nerve responded!! This is great news because until this we had never had confirmation that Landri had a working auditory nerve.  Woooo hoooo......she does!  Here is a picture of Landri celebrating at the hospital with her favorite snack.....a cheeto.....which makes perfect sense because Halle's first word was actually "cheeto". :-) 

We did have one surprise during surgery.  While in post op they noticed an abnormality in how Landris heart was beating on the monitor.  That led to an EKG and meeting with their Pediatric Cardiologist within hours of surgery.  It was determined that Landri has a heart abnormality called Long QT disorder. We are now in the process of determining which strain of the disorder she has and also since it is genetic...who else in our family has it.  In the meantime, they have Landri on medicine to slow her heart rate down in hopes of evening out the beats.  As we learn more on this....I will post more.  For the time being...thoughts and prayers.

                                  

Landri got her stitches out today.....still smilin and doing great!!

Going Smoothly with the Inge Crew

Here it is!  Spending time with two of my most favorite kids besides my girls.  The best picture we could get without someone taking a nose dive off the couch.

"This is going pretty smoothly!!"

Halle is always full of one liners that keep everything in perspective for me.  The other night we watched my friend's two kids; one age 4 and one just 2 months older than Landri.  I looked around our living room to what seemed to be complete chaos with the four kids (one toddling everywhere ....like everywhere, everywhere and one crawling.... everywhere, another bouncing off the couch, and Halle practicing her cheer routine.  Halle perks up in the midst of it all after doing a round off in the living room and said "wow, this is going pretty smoothly!".  And really it was!  In the end we got to spend GREAT time with two kids that I adore and don't get to see often enough and we escaped with only two cuts and a slightly bruised nose.  Not bad - no trips to the ER and everyone was happy and speaking to each other at the end of the night!


Another "pretty smooth" moment....we went yesterday to an appointment at the UIHC with Landri thinking they were mostly just checking her ears for fluid.  Good news is that NO fluid in the left ear (the newbie, with no surgeries), but still some in the right (the ear that we already had surgery on). So TOMORROW on Greg's birthday they are going to implant Landri's left ear!  They then hope to finish the surgery on the right ear by the end of the year.  With this awesome news Landri should be hearing (in her left ear) by her first birthday - which is also Thanksgiving Day!  I will post more very soon on how AWESOME Landri did in surgery and also what our process is going to be from here.  I will also do my very best to get better at posting pics on here.


WOW - This IS all going pretty smoothly!  :-)  How blessed are we.

This that and everything - it's our first post!!

Welcome to our blog! We are hoping this is a great way to document Landri's journey to hear and memories of Halle growing up - way too fast if I might add! Everytime I blink the girls are bigger!  Where are we at today? Let me get y'all caught up - the quick and easy version.  On Landri Goose - we go to the University of Iowa tomorrow to meet with our surgeon for an evaluation after the unexpected infection found during her first cochlear implant surgery.  We are hoping to get some better clarification on where we go from here. Specifically, we hope to find out if our surgeon plans to just finish the surgery on her right ear or also do the left ear in the same surgery.  We have a surgery date of November 5th.  I will post more on  what that means and what the process is from there for Landri to HEAR!  :-)  She is doing wonderful......scooting all over, waving, dancing, chatting......just the happiest baby!!!  Can you believe she is almost 1?

Halle Bean could not be any busier!  Seriously...the girl just keeps on going! Tonight she has a soccer game and a Hip Hop Dance class!  She is loving 3rd grade and so far has stayed healthy!  She is looking forward to her next Cheer Competition on November 1st!  She is full of comedy and I am hoping this blog will be a good place to capture all of her favorite one liners so that I never forget them!  She cracks me up and daily reminds me that Life is Good!

Okay...let me see if I can get this posted and stop back for more to come!  Never a dull moment!