Aidan Reed's...

So, is this what happens when kids are not allowed to watch television? How happy I was, when snuggled up on the couch with a good book Aidan came by and nudged until I picked him up and placed him on his end of the sofa, covered him up and gave him his current favorite books.
How lovely to start the day with him this way, gurgling chatter and classical music instead of Blue's Clues!

For Aidan's view on this subject: The P.R. Post

And the Winner is...Gram I Am...

Last night we went to Target to buy Aidan a pair of new shoes (I can't find one of his other pair!) He was so excited while I was looking at shoes that he stuck his foot up as if to say, "Put them on me Momma!" He wore them home still strung together with the tags on. First thing this morning he wanted to put them on. So proud to have shoes just like Big Daddies!

I Love You, A Bushel and a Peck!

Big Daddy just finished the biggest job we have ever done and for now his days of a two hour commute are over. This morning's commute was 3 minutes - he powerwashed a house in the area and then the day was ours!


Nary a cloud to be found - we headed northwest for Royal Oaks apple orchard. Set on what must be one thousand acres we paid (outrageously!) for our bushel and a half of apples ("I love you, a bushel and a peck!") and set out among eleven thousand trees to pick Empires and Roma's for applesauce. Roma's on account of them being "out" of McIntosh.

What fun.

I have never (to my recollection) picked apples before and I found it quite easy. But I also found myself wanting to do my Dorothy impersonation, exclaiming, "Apples" and I kept expecting gnarly branches to start throwing their fruits at me.

Into the video camera I told Joel, as I crawled out of a tree that I had met this snake and he thought Joel would really like the lucious fruit I held in my hand. It got a good laugh. "That's good babe." We giggled.

We giggled at the thought of Nick and Victoria and all the countless memories they will get to make on cheezy outings like ours today. Happy, happy, happy.

Aidancakes loved the petting zoo, the mini train ride and he was so-so on the carousel. We enjoyed apple cider donuts (Joel and Aidan's first!) and the sunshine. It was delightful.

This year's applesauce will taste even better with such a lovely memory behind it!

P.S. Aidan is off one of his meds, 28 more days 'til we nix the next one. Thank you for your prayers.

My Darling Boy...an Update!

My son. He is so brave. He has spent more days in the hospital than anyone in my immediate family combined. IV's monitors...as a newborn he survived us pushing his little legs into his chest, holding him down as we laid ice packs on his chest...anything we could do get his heart to stop racing.

Surpraventricular Tacicardia.

It smacked me in the face yesterday morning as I took Aidan to the cardiologist. In my own reality Aidan is completely healed of S.V.T. But, I have to go through the motions. One of those motions is two medications twice a day and the other is trips to see his doctor every few months.

When I get freaked I put his heart to my ear for a listen, praying not to hear it whizzing at 300 beats per minute. And when I am down or tired the Devil comes calling with his fear reminding me of increased medications, heart stimulating procedures and kissing my boy goodbye before he gets wheeled down the hall for surgery...for the most part, I don't think about it. I just "can't go there." Yesterday, my darling boy laid on a lazyboy in the corner of cardiac equipment room, perfectly still, in only his little diaper as a nurse put lead tags all over his chest and hooked him up to the EKG machine. He was wide eyed and brave. He didn't pull on the leads or wires. He has always had such a sense of what to do...but towards the end of that long minute or two he got a little scared and tears began to pool in his eyes. They had begun in my eyes too as I really considered why we where doing what we were doing. It's not everyone, everyday that has to take their child to the heart doctor.

I composed myself, comforted Aidan and held him as the nurse left and we waited for the doctor to come in. A different doctor this time, the "boss" of the group of cardiologists that we see.

A gentle, smart looking older man came thru the curtain. He asked me the usual questions, how did we discover his condition, when was the last time he had an episode, how long did it last?
We figured out something was wrong when Aidan was 11 days old, his last episode was in July, it lasted one hour.

He gave the good news that they always do. "If you didn't know he had it, you would not know he had it. His EKG looks great."

We began to talk about baby number two and coordinating the procedure they want to do to see if Aidan has grown out of SVT and baby number two in the same calander year. (We have a huge deductible and would like for one of the two to be paid for!) He explained that next year we would take Aidan off the meds, and then do an esophigial test. They would put a tube down his esophagus (sp?) and stimulate his heart from behind to see if they could set it off. If it doesn't go off...the SVT is gone. (When you are born with it you have a 30-40% chance of outgrowing it.) This doctor explained that since Aidan's last episode was July, the SVT is most likely still there and we could do this test next spring or summer.

Wait a minute. "Not July...LAST July." I exclaimed!

The old man's eyes lit up! He thought that was wonderful, over a year and episode free! I told him that as a newborn Aidan was very irritated with the racing heart. That was about the only reason he cried. To this day his is such a good boy, if he does get cranky we check his heart (Joel checks it more than I at random times) but we have NEVER heard it race. It has been 14 months.

The news he gave next filled me with joy.

He said, if we wanted to we could STOP Aidan's medication. No esophigial test. Simply discontinue one med for 30 days and then the other, listen to his heart consistantly. He thinks there is a good chance he has grown out of it!

I could not believe what I was hearing. This is EXACTLY what Joel and I had been discussing. Wasn't there an easier, less invasive way to check? I never expected to hear a doctor say there was. I never expected to hear we could do it whenever we felt comfotable.

So here we are. This could all be over and all we have to do is stops the meds to find out. We have been believing it is gone since the moment his last episdoe stopped at 1pm on July 7th 2005. Now we must put our faith to action.

I feel like I am standing, holding Aidan, leaning out over a cliff. I believe there is something to catch us, something to make life safer than it ever was but I can't see it. We just have to lean over and jump.

God is so faithful. I feel that by the doctor bringing this up, this idea that WE came up with...I feel that is the Lord speaking. We are asking for your prayers as we excercise wisdom over Aidan's life. The last time God literally stuck out his hand as said, "Trust me" was last year. Now it seems He is doing it again.

Thank you for your prayers as we step out in faith! How exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!