31 for 21 - Day 6: Company

Today my in-laws arrived. Aidan was so thrilled to have his Dido back, he pushed me away when I tried to take him upstairs for a nap...but, he let Dido take him. Stinker.

31 for 21 - Day 5: kindness of others

When Aidan was born, we lived in Winnipeg with no family close by. Our neighbours were great and automatically stepped up with offers to help.

One neighbour in particular holds a special place in all of our hearts. Her name is Sandra, and she was beyond amazing and wonderful to Aidan. When Sandra heard of Aidan's heart condition she offered to come and sit with him while I walked the boys to and from school. Kieran was in morning kindergarten, and Liam was in afternoon nursery school. In the dead of winter, Sandra would bundle up and come over so that I wouldn't have to take Aidan out in the cold. She always smiled. She would call out, "where's my little boyfriend?" She delighted in holding him in the rocking chair. She did this four times a day whenever she could. When Sandra would have to be away for work, she always gave me advance notice. On those days, Aidan would be under my jacket in a snuggly. He was so tiny!

My favourite memory was when Liam showed up with just a Darth Vader mask on, and nothing else. He stood there starkers and she just laughed.

Sandra was magnificent to us - a truly good and genuine person with a great passion for life.

While we have awesome neighbours in our new Province, we dearly miss Sandra and her wonderful laugh. Everyone should experience a neighbour like Sandra - at least once in a lifetime!

31 for 21 - Day 4: Blue pajamas

This morning Aidan is wearing his fuzzy blue pajamas.
My heart melts.
Love spills into the room all around me.

31 for 21 - Day 3: Advocate This...

In my humble opinion the best advocacy I can do for my son and people with Down syndrome is take Aidan out in the community with me. Little old ladies stop to chat with us in the grocery store. We meet other families who have children with Down syndrome in parking lots and we exchange quick nuggets of information. We play with other children at the playground. We volunteer in the school so that the teachers, students and support staff, parents all get to know Aidan.


He's a magnet. Other people, young and old seem to be drawn to him. I have never experienced a negative moment when we're out and about.


Aidan waves to people. Laughs. High fives. Claps. Talks on his hand phone. Plays ring-around-the-rosie. And basically charms everyone he meets.


I don't have to stand behind a podium to advocate for Aidan, though the day may come when I'll want to. For now, the best thing we can do is be out there for the simple joy of it.

31 for 21 - day 2: Life is full

Life with Aidan is full. Full of joy, full of appointments, full of explanations, full of love, full of chromosomes (well, just one extra one really).

Today we took him to the walk-in clinic to have his chest listened to. When he gets a cold, it goes straight to his chest, and he barks. He's been to emergency on a number of occasions for croup and x-rays - though it's never developed into pneumonia (thank goodness).

The good news is, Aidan has a virus - his ears are good, throat's good, chest sounds okay. We have to be on the watch of course in case it develops into something worse - but for the time being we just have to give him a little extra TLC.

Still, his cough sounds horrendous. Wish him luck for a speedy recovery!

I'm doing the 31 for 21 Challenge!

I've just learned about this 31 for 21 challenge to write daily for the month of October to raise awareness about Down syndrome. Why this month? Why now? Because, this is Down syndrome Awareness Month - so why not? I think it's a sign that I've actually come across this blogging event today on the first day - so I'm jumping in and rising to the challenge.

Now about our littlest billy goat. Aidan was born three years ago, and the fact that he has Down syndrome came as a complete surprise to us. Well, we were surprised, but we weren't. It's very hard to explain. James and I were aware that there was a higher chance of having a child with Down syndrome because of my age, so I think we both mentally prepared for it. Also, we chose not to have any testing done while I was pregnant other than the ultrasound. At that point we had a rather "whatever will be will be" outlook.

I have no regrets. None at all. I had a very good pregnancy. We all anticipated his arrival with great joy. We actually knew he was a boy from the ultrasound, and were calling him Aidan long before he joined us out of belly.

What I wasn't prepared for was his heart condition. I was not aware that there are so many other health complications, and I was quite floored by the news that he would need heart surgery. I cried my eyes out in the bathroom next to the Variety Heart Centre. I sat in the waiting room like a zombie. I felt like I was repeatedly kicked in the stomach. It was very, very hard.

This photo was taken when Aidan was almost a year old.

What helped? My big boys. They didn't see all of the complications when they saw Aidan. They saw their baby brother. They loved him up right from the beginning and it did my heart good.

What else helped? I went on-line. I searched for images of children with Down syndrome and came across a few group sites on Flickr. Going through images of children and their families made me have hope. Gradually I made connections and saw that other kids made it through with flying colours. Families survived the stress involved in watching their babies go into heart failure, and come out of the hospital pink and all fixed up.

What else helped? My family and friends. They were so amazing. They loved me even when I was strung out with anxiety.

What else helped? Respite services. I remember walking around the mall near our house...I was completely in my own head, but I needed that escape (even though I felt guilty at first). It was healthy to get away and come back happy to see my little guys.

This has been a rather long post - I'm excited about the 31 for 21 Challenge - but expect some brief entries to come.

Canadian Thanksgiving Coming soon!