Landon Kicks Cancer...and so do the Rockets!

Landon was a T.R.O.O.P.E.R today. We left at 5:15 this morning for Children's. Landon was awake and pleasant the entire trip. He was polite and social to all of his nurses (even before his anesthesia kicked in). We checked in at the desk at 7:15. At 8:00 they gave him an oral sedative, which made him loopy. He was hysterical. He kept looking up at the lights and sticking his tongue out. Laughing at weird stuff, totally limp and floppy. Singing....HILARIOUS. Every time he would look up at the fluorescent lights, he'd say, very slowly, "Uh-oh." And he'd point. "Two." I finally asked if he was seeing two lights and he said, uh huh. :)

When they wheeled him out our room he was saying bye to us. He was gone for 45 minutes and then they called us back to recovery. We were there for just a few minutes before they took him back to the room we started in. He was snoozin' away and definitely didn't want to be bothered. The nurse finally got his attention by offering him a popsicle. She brought the popsicle and he downed it in a matter of seconds. When it got too low on the stick for him to reach, Chad offered to move it up for him. He said, no, he'd get it. He tried to scoot it up, and then said, in his sedated voice, "What the heck" and handed it to Chad. by 11:45 we were walking out of the hospital, a wobbly Landon in tote.

We went to Union Station for lunch because he wasn't quite ready to get in the carseat for a

nother two hour drive. He rode a hoc-a-pillar...(helicopter) and we walked through the Cardinal Clubhouse. We threw some pennies in the fountain and had some lunch and then got back in the car.

The rest of the evening he's been the opposite of what we expected. Mr Energy. Mr. Silly. Mr. I Wanna Eat Three Meals! Mom stayed with Grant today, and is spending the night tonight. (THANKS, MOM!) Here's Landon helping her feed Lydia, her dog, on Farmville. So as of today, we are DONE with this. In July we will go back to Children's for a CT scan, as we will for the next five years. Which, really, probably won't be that fun. But it will reassure us that we have a healthy Landon, which is a very, very good thing. (Sorry, Martha Stewart. I stole your line. This is way better than any of your very, very good things anyway.)

Here's a video of Landon being silly on the car ride home. He is doing a scene from "Barnyard." He's saying, "That's called boy-tipping. Ha. Ha. Ha." as said by one of the cows in the movie.

Earlier this week, Chad's girls team did two games to benefit the American Cancer Society. Here they are in their "Rockets Kick Cancer" shirts with Coach and Landon. Landon was so excited to "match Daddy and all the girls!"

Proud and relieved are not big enough word to encompass how we feel right now. Landon has been such a trooper through this entire ordeal. Our family, friends, and community have been SO supportive, helpful, and concerned. To say this past year has changed our lives would be the understatement of the century. We will never take for granted the health of our family ever again. We will never hear of anyone being diagnosed with cancer, or any other health problem, and think "gosh that stinks" and go on with our lives. We will never see posters hanging around our community promoting fundraisers for families paying medical bills and not open our wallets ever again. There will never be a day that goes by, ever, that we won't say prayers of gratitude to God for giving us healthy boys and a supportive and loving family and community.