My how time changes.... the other night at the baseball game, Mr. Brady wanted nothing but to crawl around on the grass, stand up holding onto the fence, shake, shake, shake it a bit, then crawl down to the other parents....

Is this my same boy??? :)

We had a lovely visit to the dentist this past week. We had gone last month to find Brady had three cavities so we needed to return to have them filled. Because they were not too bad and there were only three, the dentist decided we would try to "scoop" the cavity out, put the medicine in and then the filling on. In the future, if there were a lot of cavities or in bad shape, he would be sedated.


I am not ashamed to say I hate the dentist. Maybe because when I first went to the dentist in my toddler days I had 24 cavities, my mother reminded me. I thought I only had seven, but my mother said, "No that's all they filled" because I was screaming the whole time. (Shudder) Now I have perfectly straight (thank you braces) teeth and stretch going to the dentist as much as I can.


Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive about going this week with Brady. My mother was away so I was going solo and not looking forward to it. When it came for Brady's turn, the dentist reminded me they would put Brady in a sleeping bag-type holder to prevent him from moving around. I had already stated that I didn't want to be in there with him because while I knew he would be fine, I didn't think I would be.


I followed the dentist down the hall and into the room wear six other mask-wearing people waited. They held their arms up with the gloves on intact, looking at me expectantly with the specimen-child. I held Brady and started to feel a bit panicky. "Um, I'm just going to lay him down and go" I told the doctor. She said, "That's what I want you to do." I did not want to see them strap him in the magical stay-still bed. I grabbed the carriage and hightailed it out.


I had to go outside to use my cellphone, where I left a message for my mother and then called Tom. After speaking to him for about 20 minutes I went back inside and the doctor was in the hall with Brady looking for me. My worries, apprehension, nervousness and guilt were for naught - apparently he fell asleep after they put him in the bed with music playing and they did their work. (Ahh!) Must I make such a big deal over EVERYTHING?!?!?


And on top of that, his front tooth held the largest cavity, which was the tooth that came in split and last Christmas eventually broke the tip off. They fashioned the filling as his tooth, and you can see from the first picture his top right tooth looks fabulous. (How'd you like to put your finger near those chompers??)

Dum, dum.. (shark music) She's BA-ACK!

Ahhh.... it's June. Activities for Michael's last year at an elementary school are OVER! (that would be three major events plus a yearbook and slide show to produce over a three month period). Baseball, where we lived and breathed for two months, is OVER! (although we have summer league now.) Scouts... going on the down low. Could it be... will it be.... perhaps (gulp) some time to chill out?!?!?

You mean... I can actually blog again? It's so hard to find the time to chat with everyone. And then even when I wanted to send out a little update, I would think, "I can't write THAT... they don't even know about THIS yet!"

SO here is the Cliff Notes version, on some very important stuff:

First off, Mr. Brady is officially a CRAWLER! He did it a little at a time, but at 31 months of age I could say he became an official crawler. I can also say at 31 months of age, he became an official CRUISER! Yes, folks, he managed two modes of transportation at once. At 32 months of age (last week) he walked with his posterior walker unassisted -- all legs and arms, all him :) He did it smiling with his scrunched up face the whole time, as if he was laughing at me.

Secondly, his eating has gotten much better --still following all of Amy's hints and strategies (thx!). Loving the cereal bars and have tried a few times jelly sandwiches. Not gaining a lot of weight, but he looks like a little kid sucking out of his juice box rather than me holding a bottle to his mouth. How cool is that???

Thirdly, we had his echo last week which showed (good news) pulmonary stenosis down to 20, and getting better (Lisa said he could outgrow this)and (bad news) his supra valvular aortic stenosis getting steadily worse (at 60 now). The doctor said he just wrote a paper on what the magical number is to do a catherization, and it's... wait for it.... 60! This means we are going to have one, probably in August. He said we could wait til it gradually went up and next year do it at 70, but he'd rather do it now while Brady's strong and healthy. Makes sense, but still... ugh. We've never had one. He also said that if the gradient of the narrowing is a true 60 (sometimes the echo can be wrong) we would have heart surgery after the cath.

And fourthly more bad news, we are losing our speech therapist tomorrow. She is moving to Arizona :(. We already have a new one and she is ready to pop in two times a week, but she's not Vikki and I can already tell I am being mean to her, subconsciously, of course. :) She is extremely qualified and an excellent therapist, but Vikki has been with Brady since he was five months old. I have been with her through two boyfriends, a psycho Internet date, and a hormonal sister (all on her end, not mine!)

The only thing that comforts me is knowing that Brady's OT will remain his OT after he leaves Early Intervention (he's in that until age 3, then it's preschool) because she got a job in the school system and she will be working in his preschool. I LOVE that continuity! His PT, who has been around since he was four months old, will always be in my life, I think! She is a sweetheart and we have very close ties.

It's amazing I find these blessings amidst the health concerns, but I feel if I don't see them, I will drown in the unknowing and unthinkable. I will worry about his cath and its aftermath in August, but I don't want to dwell on it now. I know it will always be on my mind somewhere, but I have another son, a husband and two months of summer before that happens. We have a great vacation planned for Point Sebago again next month, plus I plan on seeing Lisa even though she doesn't know it yet ;)

I apologize that I haven't caught up on everyone's blogs, but I am doing that now. I know some of you have had health issues and my prayers are with you.

Finally! Brady's Walk 2008

Counting My Blessings

1) I am very thankful for my mother coming over Wednesday morning just so I could clean my office. I organized, threw away, divided out for a yard sale... ahhh, how refreshing!!

2) I am very blessed for Brady to have such fabulous therapists - we managed to get our first eval meeting now with the preschool for the Fall since they are all such fighters for him. The meeting went really well, and I am somewhat comforted that although we will lose these lovely ladies come his third birthday, he is going to a great school.

3) I am very thankful that I find pleasures in just simple things: finding a good book, finding 15 minutes where I can just sit; clothes that fit; the smell of the flowers as I walk in; getting info for our vacation this summer -yeah!

4) I am very thankful that I know so many fabulous "little people" - my nephew Jack came over this week and made me smile to no end with his"pleeeaaassse"; and a brother to one of Michael's baseball teammates has become my little buddy, helping me with Molly and Brady at the games.

5) I am grateful that Michael is on a baseball team that is fun for him, where the coaches are there for the kids to have a great time without stressing them out (they are 10-2!), where we on the sidelines have a blast rootin' for the kiddos.

I am getting tired of my old line, "things are really crazy here" as to why I haven't posted lately. I have the video almost done on Brady's Walk --just still figuring out the dang-#%& music! I will get it eventually; it took me a little while with last year's too. Hopefully that will be posted over the next day or two.

Back to my first point -- yes, it has been crazy, with baseball, school projects, transition meetings (yep!) but I have to say I don't think that is my only reason for not posting. It is easy for me to post to ask for advice or to vent; but when things are the way they are for us right now, I find it hard to come to the computer and write something out every day.

Brady is doing... really well. He has been progressing very well, very fast. We went to see the preschool Brady will be going to in the fall about two weeks ago, then met with the therapist team from the school this week so they could evaluate his needs (he will have his IEP meeting in September for his October start date). When we went this week, the preschool director was amazed at how much he has progressed in just those two weeks. He has been pulling to a stand for a while, but now he is doing it more correctly and very quickly. He is starting to cruise a bit more. He is still taking his milk from his bottle, but everything else is by straw (he just couldn't do the sippy cup, but his ST says this will be more age-appropriate anyway). You can play with him more; he enjoys toys now. You can make him laugh. We told him to say goodnight to Michael, and he tried to kiss him :)

And the list goes on. I think this explosion started after we went to Kentucky in January and really took off after his eye surgery. (Who knew how blurry things were before surgery??) I had always heard 18 months is the age that "everything happens" developmental-wise. Well, I have begun to think of Brady not as a 2-1/2 year old, but as a 1-1/2 year old, since that is really where he is. In that line of thinking, coincidentally he is about 18 months old now.

I am excited and relieved and .... content. Having to wait for so long to see some kind of development, but knowing it would happen, I finally feel that my optimistic attitude has earned its stay. I know he will come to more challenges and obstacles, but we have been waiting so long for this child to "show up" and he finally did. All the other WS kids I know have hit these milestones long before Brady. I finally feel like we have a "kid" versus a "baby".

It's not hard for me to be positive and to be happy for the way Brady has gone on, and I definitely like to give the kid his props for achieving so much. I celebrate each new facet in his life, then move on to the next.

I have another revelation to share... I am past, and have been for quite some time, the feeling that WS has "ruined" our life. I am sympathetic to those who are still struggling, because it is a hard peace to find, I think. I will always be a shoulder for those people, because I know sometimes it is only time that helps people find that inner peace. Sometimes it is only coming across families who have had much worse conditions than WS. I think that has a lot to do with my thought process.

I don't wish for my son to have his heart condition, or have to be extra careful with his calcium intake or in the sun. Because of his radio ulnar synostosis, I need to be taught how to help Brady catch a ball or even eat with a utensil. But I see changes in me and Tom that would not have come with WS in our lives. Patience. Respect. Care. Optimism (in Tom, not me LOL). Loyalty. Knowledge - of what is important in life. Understanding. It has been said that special needs children are only born to those mothers who are able to "handle" being a mom to a special needs kid... I also think the special needs kids are born into families who need them.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed in what has to get done, but I have never felt that I was drowning. Sometimes I am fearful of what is to come in the future, but I am so very Scarlet O'Hara and "think about that tomorrow". LOL Sometimes I worry what would happen if I was to drop dead tomorrow.... but all these things are what every mother feels regardless of her child's development. In fact, most of my worries are based on tomorrow, not today. "Today Brady took a BITE out of an Oreo." "Today Brady grabbed Tom's arm so he could drink more Pepsi." (Today momma gets a big bill from the dentist LOL) "Today Brady had a great day at playgroup, not ONE cry!!" I can't worry if Brady will have friends when he is eight - he's not eight yet. (And then I just think of Michaela anyway :) )

Am I only content because Brady is progressing? No, I have always been optimistic among my vents and letdowns. I am sure I will still have them! But no different than the ones I have for Michael or Tom LOL.

Life is what it is... this is my life and here we are.

I have one blessing this Sunday ~ I am blessed to know all the mommies who have helped me, guided me, supported me, strengthened me, humored me, uplifted me, relieved me and relaxed me. I am forever grateful, whether I have "met" you in person or online. Brady has many "mothers" out there .... thank you and Happy Mother's Day!