We were able to celebrate Landon's first birthday. I'm in complete denial. I'm not sure if it is the second child effect or if it is all we have been through (or likely a combination of both) but this past year happened in a blink. 

We Celebrated Landon's birthday with family and friends from near and far. There were 19 kiddos under the age of 6 and 25 adults packed into in the small walls of our home. You couldn't hear yourself think, toys and children covered every surface of our floor, we found cake frosting everywhere, it was perfect. 

This last week has opened a flood of memories and flashbacks. In hind sight, I don't know how we did it. I would obviously do it all over again in a heartbeat but now that we are where we are, Seth and I agree, we never want to live through it again. 

Ironically, I was placed in cardiac surgery this week- I wasn't sure how I would do processing the emotions of this space while remembering my purpose there as a learner. I ran into Landon's CRNA who passionately and expertly cared for Landon for both his septostomy and surgery. I am quickly learning this specific CRNA is adored and respected by many. I'm not sure who's day was made more- me being able to thank him personally, or him being able to see Landon's first birthday photos, a happy moment for both of us as he said he always wonders about how his kiddos do, but often never gets to see it. 

Landon is every ounce of a 1 year old boy. He likes to trust fall off of elevated surfaces, he climbs up stairs faster than you can realize he is no longer in the room, his favorite activity is making tsunamis in the bathtub, and the things his sister has never touched in her life, Landon has discovered and mastered how to remove from the wall & chew on. You love to see it, but man, this kid can be hard to keep alive sometimes. 

Landon had his 24 hour heart monitor, echocardiogram, and cardiology follow up. I will say, all of these went surprisingly better than I anticipated. During Landon's echo he "helped" the tech by keeping his hand over her hand and the ultrasound probe. He would then point to the images and talk to the tech- like "look! That's my heart!" It was so stinking cute. 

We are thrilled that his heart reports came back nearly perfect. They still couldn't see the particular spot that is the highest risk for concerns (where the PA is pulled infront of the Aorta) but they have enough evidence from other measures (RV outflows and size) that they aren't concerned. We are also coming off his heart medication. Yay! No more sneaking into his room at night to give him his last dose for the day! Over the next three weeks we will titrate this medication down from 3 times a day to eventually off. We will then do a heart monitor for 48 hours to make sure his heart behaves without the medication telling it to slow down. We will do another cardiac workup in August and then hopefully graduate to yearly after that. 

Landon has had an tough winter as far as normal kiddo illnesses go. He has had an ear infection since Thanksgiving which has caused a lot of clingy, fussy, sleepless nights, and A LOT of clinic visits. Our frequent flier miles remain readily used. We are on our fourth failed antibiotic regimen and don't have any other options. He started draining pus from his ears again today- Unfortunately we can't get into ENT until the end of the month so I'm not sure what we are going to do.  He also had pneumonia, norovirus and covid. I was talking to a fellow mom and said well hopefully we have everything covered now, to which she informed me they had croup and pink eye in their house- so yes there are more options to chose from, joy. 🙃 

This last year has been a journey to say the least, the words will never come for the gift Landon's healthcare team has blessed us with. We are so grateful and beyond thankful for our sweet little boy and the joy and completeness he brings to our little family. 

Happy birthday to our little Landon Everett, our boy who climbed his long hill with strength and bravery. ❤️