one down, eleven to go

the first month of 2009 has come and gone. it was a fairly busy month for us too.

landon went back to the children's hospital and had to do a test that monitored his swallowing. they found that landon is aspirating, meaning taking fluid and food into his lungs. the doctors are telling me that could be why he is so sick all the time; once the bacteria gets into his lungs, there aren't antibodies to fight the virus or infection and they just compound on one another. when he had the test done, he had strep pneumonia and the parainfluenza virus at the same time. with some strong antibiotics and a steriod hormone, the virus cleared up and now we're back to the noisy breathing and the scary thought that if he takes too much fluid into his lungs, he could drown while trying to breathe. the doctors are telling us not to worry to that extreme, that he should grow out of it. if he doesn't, they will perform some type of surgery to regulate his fluid intake. for now, it's one day at a time and that's really all we can do.

landon also got his first official haricut. he were just intending to trim up some hair in the back and on the sides that had gotten out of control. landon didn't realize that he was supposed to stay still and moved just as we took the shaver to his head. a couple big chunks of his light blonde hair fell to the ground. we tried to salvage what we could and at some point, we decided there was no saving most of his hair. we decided to just buzz it all off and leave only a strip of hair on the top of his head, forming a mohawk kind of look. here he is with a disapproving look in his face as we were in the middle of coming up with a game plan. it turned out pretty cute though and we kept getting comments on it the whole next week at daycare and when he came with us to the store. it's hard for him not to be cute, and i'm not just saying that because he's mine. hundreds of strangers have confirmed it :) here is the mohawk after a couple of days of growth.

as far as the one that's growing, everything is going well. i've been tired and having a hard time eating. jordan gets frustrated because dinner never is a good time for me to eat. i get evening sickness, instead of morning sickness. sometimes cereal or a bagel or nothing sounds best. i always can stomach some grapefruit soda though. meat doesn't seem to be as big as a problem as it was with landon. i was a complete vegan for the first seven months with landon; no meat, not even chicken. it made me so sick. i've been able to eat some meat and hot dogs, so it isn't so bad. i'm getting to the end of the first trimester and i couldn't be happier. the first three months are rough....trouble sleeping, wanting to sleep all the time, feeling sick, being sick, and getting that doughy middle section again. ugh. we have a doctor's appointment on friday. hopefully we'll be able to hear the heartbeat then.

yesterday was superbowl. everyone here in arizona was going cardinal crazy! they were buying everything cardinals and the funny thing is that these people could've cared less about the team three months ago. they don't even know the names of the players but they wear the jerseys and the tshirts. it was ridiculous. being that my family is from pennslyvania and the eagles got knocked out by the cardinals, i figured they would be routing for the steelers...and they were. i wasn't routing for either team, i was just hoping for a good game...and it was!!! it was exciting and it was fun to hang out with our friends and family. we all went to ryan and kami's house. logan, felicia, taylor came over and so did kyle and his girlfriend jorden. watching the game, playing with the kids, and just enjoying each other's company is always the best way to spend a sunday. here is me and taylor. she is turning into a kid now, no longer in the baby-baby phase. she sits up on her own and tries to pull herself to crawl. she is so mild and calm compared to our crazy boys, landon and kade.

the boys were so funny. they were running around, playing with guns and balls and all kinds of toys. landon likes to mimic what kade does and kade copies landon. here they both are sitting under the table for no other reason than they just wanted to sit there i guess. landon was busy rifling through felicia's purse.

landon and taylor were funny too. landon tried to pet her, like he does the cat and dogs. he isn't sure what to "do" with her since she doesn't really move around on her own yet. she just stares at him and laughs. we tried to get landon to give up his cookie before we took the picture but he wasn't having it. in fact, he wanted a second one to hold in his hand.

this month, we have some stuff going on. jordan's birthday is the 6th, our anniversary is the 9th, valentine's day is the 14th. all you guys, don't feel like candy and roses are the only option. be orginial! my friend stephanie is coming for a short visit and i haven't seen her in awhie so it will be good to have a girl's lunch with her. softball starts again, but i'll just be a supporter of my team and kyle plays on it, so that will be fun to watch. i can't play because being pregnant makes me a liability. i'm alittle bummed because even though i'm not great at it, it's fun to play. we're counting down the days to when we get to go to washington for spring break at the end of march.

hope all is well with you and yours. enjoy this short month we'll be having and try to get some mroe sleep...i know i will be :)