2.5 years

2.5 years. That's how long it has been since Ayden was born. Is it possible for something to feel simultaneously interminable and fleeting? If so, that's what these 2.5 years have been like. I guess that there was only a 60-70% chance he would make it to 6 months old impacts my reaction to this milestone (and every one hereafter, I suppose). Maybe that will be both Ayden's blessing and curse. Will he ever just be "Ayden," rather than "Ayden, the kid with half a heart"? To those who meet him later in his life, the former is certainly possible, if not likely. For his parents, the latter will likely be very hard to shake off. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

But enough of the serious stuff. This is a celebratory post. Ayden is 2.5 years old! And he is doing great! His most recent cardiology appointment was Wednesday, and it really couldn't have gone better. Dr. K was the most pleased as I have ever seen her with the results of the ECHO, EKG, x-ray, etc. (That's saying something, because there has never really been a regularly scheduled clinic visit in which she wasn't pleased.)

His x-ray was clear (we had weaned his diuretic one week prior). His heart wall motion was great, so she saw absolutely no need to put him back on the medication to help with that (it was taken off after his surgery in case it was an impediment to his heart rhythm normalizing). His tricuspid valve is still leaking, but just barely. It's either the same or better than last time. (If you gave a "normal" person an ECHO, you'd probably find some very minor leakage somewhere.)

As always, Ayden wanted to "help" put together the little shelving we bought.

As usual, Ayden performed admirably. He started off a bit reticent, which has become his personality, but he soon opened up (also his personality). He did so well with his ECHO, the tech gave him three stickers instead of just one. We had worked on saying "Dr. K" on the way there. He quickly had it down - though his version sounds like "Doctor Tay" because all his hard "c" and "k" sounds are still "t" sounds - and was repeating it constantly. Once we got there, I couldn't get him to say it in her presence. He finally said it about five minutes before it was time to leave. And he's talked about her each day since. He even said "Fun, Dr. K" as we were getting in the car to leave, which is how he tells us he has had fun doing something. Yes, he now utilizes some rudimentary sentences when he talks.

The best part of the visit was Dr. K telling us she'd see us again in a year (an x-ray in two months to get rid of the diuretic altogether, and hopefully for forever, notwithstanding). A year! These 2.5 years have been by no means easy, on so many levels. Even so, we feel so blessed by God for Ayden to be where he is now. Once we get him eating in a way that's appropriate for his age (he did really well at feeding therapy on Thursday; maybe a breakthrough here is coming), it will be very hard for someone new to look at him and know what he's gone through. His scars will be the only evidence.

I really like my Buddy the T-rex slippers.

I don't think we could ask for anything more than that.