Shooting Stars

We have had some fun happenings this year. Makayla joined the Shooting Stars soccer team. They play indoors in the winter time and only meet on Saturdays for games. Makayla had a really great time playing with these girls and has gotten so much more aggressive with the ball. She wants to be on the same team again in the fall season when they play outdoors.

No really he is fine

30 days come and go. Every day we take his heart rate by pushing a little button. It records what his heart is doing and then we send it via the phone line. Well, I say that like it is easy. The little electrodes that stick to Dylan's chest he is allergic too. Poor buddy gets a huge blister on both spots that the electrodes are placed. So we call for pediatric electrodes. The place that they are shipping them from is on the east coast which happens to be completely snowed in at the time. When we get the new package it is the same electrodes! So we wait again and finally get the right ones. So all in all it was probably in place for about 3 weeks. After all the results were calculated, or whatever they do with them, he still seems fine. So what happened? Don't know. Will we ever know? Probably not. Hopefully not.

Mary Bridge

So here we are at Northwest Children's Heart care Center. It is a nice, clean office set up wonderfully for children. There is a TV on with Toy Story on and some toys in the corner. I fill out all of the paperwork and we wait. Dylan seems fine. He is bouncing around like a crazy boy. My stomach churns with worry. Grammy is here with me and we chit chat about nothing. "Dylan", the nurse calls him back. So we packed up our stuff and head back. We are put in the dog and cat room. There are tons of pictures of dogs and cats. Dylan starts counting them. It is a nice distraction to the reason that we are here. The nurse comes in and checks all his vitals and takes off his shirt to do another EKG. Dylan still thinks it's cool, I still do not. The nurse is great and let's Dylan take off the electrodes and asks if he wants to keep them. Of course, that is so cool. After the EKG we go into another room so they can do an echo cardiogram. It is dark in the room and the lady puts a big glob of ultrasound goo on his chest and goes to work. It is amazing to see his little heart up on the screen pumping away. Dylan is fascinated with it for about 5 minutes then watches the movie they have going on in the room. My eyes don't move off his little heart. I wish I knew what I was looking for. Looks beautiful to me, I'm sure it's fine. The tech doesn't say a word. She just keeps doing her job switching screens back and forth and moving her views around. Finally she cleans him up and we go back to wait for the doctor. He FINALLY comes in (doesn't he know he has a very nervous mommy in here) and tells me well, he seems fine. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with his heart. But just to be sure he has to wear a heart monitor for 30 days. Wait, come again, he is fine? Hurray!!! But wait again, he has to wear a heart monitor for 30 days. OK so only a little celebration for now.....

And it continues....

While I was still in my cast, Dylan was in the bathtub one night and said, "Mom, my heart hurts" It was very simple. He had his hand to his chest right where his heart is. He wasn't crying or freaking out. He seemed a little confused by the whole thing but defiantly sure that it was his heart. It was bedtime and I thought it must be because we had a long day. I also think that he has some heartburn so I thought maybe it was that. So I had him finish up his bath and go to bed. The next morning he woke up and was still complaining. I called into the Dr. and made an afternoon appointment. I still wasn't worried, cause it was heartburn ya know, but I thought I better get it checked out. We go in and Heather (the NP at Dr Taggart's office) listens to his heart. She listens for a while. Then she goes and gets a different stethoscope. A peds one so she can hear better. She listens some more and decides to get Dr Taggart. Still not worried, you can't hear heartburn....Dr Taggart listens and listens. He tells me that he has an irregular heartbeat and we need to do an EKG on him. Umm, that doesn't sound like heartburn but OK. So they hook him up with all these wires and a machine. Dylan thinks this is super cool and that he looks like a robot. OK, getting a little worried now. They send over the EKG to Mary Bridge and they want to see him tomorrow, what time works. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WAIT, WHAT HAPPENED TO HEARTBURN? MARY BRIDGE? THAT'S A CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL PLACE FOR SICK KIDS. THIS IS DYLAN, he has heartburn. Funny that they ask what time works. Does it matter if I had anything at all in the world tomorrow? My son has something maybe wrong with his heart. His heart hurts and that makes my heart hurt. Whatever time you need me to be there, I will be there. I call Tom and it all hits me in 1 swell punch. I have to take
Dylan to Mary Bridge tomorrow, no I'm sure he will be fine. No you don't have to take tomorrow off, my mom can come. He will be fine, he will be fine right? Quiet tears because I don't want to scare Dylan or Makayla. OK tomorrow we are going to a pediatric cardiologist. This can't be OK.

2010...You have been rough....

At the stroke of midnight we all have this feeling of refreshment, the start of a new year. It's a good way for us to reflect on the goods and bads of the last year and look forward to the goods of the new year. 2009 was good to us so we looked to 2010 with great expectations. On January 2, those hopes of goods broke! Literally I broke my hand. Funny story really, well not to me but to everyone else it seems. We were having one of our theme dinners (nachos this time). I really wanted to get a group picture and my friend Janai was bending over in a position where I was pulled to slap her on her butt. I couldn't help myself, it was there. So she, lovingly tried to kick me on my butt. I was so quick-like though that I blocked her kick with my hand and crack-no really we all heard it-there went my 4th metacarpal on my right hand. Did I mention it was my RIGHT hand, yes I am right handed. I didn't really think it was broken so we went about the evening. The next morning it was pretty sore and really bruised but it was a Sunday. I kind of wrapped it up and went about the day. Monday morning I went to the Dr, xrays and viola, a spiral fracture. What?! This is the 1st time I have broken a bone. I have had LOTS of injuries and several surgeries but had never broken a bone before. What a pain! In every way you could mean that. 5 Loooooong weeks later I got to take my splint off. BUT, I did get my group picture...

Christmas 2009

A few things I don't want to forget......

Makayla's face as we were unwrapping the ornaments to hang on the tree: the ohhhh I remember this one & ahhhh this one is one of my favorites

Dylan's squeals as we got out the decorations and the pure excitement that he had

The way Makayla had to really think about what she wanted this year: a crayon maker and some webkinz

They way Dylan immediately knew what he wanted and did not wavered on that want one bit: a Dsi and Super Mario game

How I was able to threaten that Santa was coming and how it wasn't all that effective until Santa told them to keep their rooms clean

They look on Dylan's face when Santa pulled out his DS to look at his lists and told Dylan that he was on the naughty list but that he would x that out and put him back on the nice list if he quit being whiny.

The look on Makayla's face when Santa took her over to Rudolph's collar and jangled the bells and told her who's there were.

Dylan's tragic look on Christmas Eve as he was going to bed and saw that his room was a tiny bit messy. Then the look of gratification when he cleaned it very quickly.

Makayla's wiggles and giggles as she went to bed. Wanting so badly to fall asleep and just to darn excited to do so.

Always Christmas morning and the excitment it contains as they realize Santa DID leave presents

Happy Birthday Mom (that would be ME)!!

Today is my birthday. A big 31. And what do I want to do, what do I want to do? In my family we make a big deal out of birthdays but when it came to mine I didn't want to do much. So Saturday night, I picked up some take-n-bake pizzas and we came home to bake them. While they baked we set up our Christmas tree. Dylan was SO excited that he literally squealed with excitement. I thought he was in pain, no, just excited. When the pizzas were ready we laid out a blanket on the carpet and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Then we finished decorating the tree. After the kids went to bed I worked on my Christmas scrapbook and Tom played on the computer. Ahhhh, what a perfect evening. So for the big day, what to do? Tom, the kids and I went to South Center and did some shopping. Now normally this might not be such a fun adventure but the kids were fabulous. Dylan was so cute, he would say, well it's your birthday. You could tell a few times he wanted to whine or complain but he toughed it up and kept on shopping. What troopers! When we came home I walked into a CLEAN house! WOW, was I surprised. Every year when Tom asks what I want I say, a clean house, and not cleaned by me. This year Tom enlisted the help of one of my dear friends and that is what I got!! We then put up some outdoor Christmas lights. Dylan was coming outside to play and I asked him to put on his coat, he started to argue but paused and said, "well it's your birthday". We then went out to dinner with Mom and Ray, Kerri and Jason and us and it was perfect. We came home and the kids went to bed without a fuss. Priceless!! What a great 31st birthday!!!!!!