Turning 2

I started this blog as a way to chronicle Jonas's journey with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. I wanted to share his story, especially while all of the details were fresh. I wanted him to be able to read this when he's older, and understand how everything came to pass.

I am pleased to report that I don't need to post here often, because Jonas is just a regular little boy that happens to have a heart that's wired a little differently than most. He runs and plays, he laughs and cries, he talks. Oh, does he ever TALK!

In the weeks leading up to his second birthday, he has become increasingly stubborn and independent. Those terrible two's are creeping up, and I wasn't expecting such a transformation! My sweet little ray of sunshine is now showing me he is his own person: a toddler force not to be reckoned with! So I try to give him his space, and lovingly guide him the best I can without getting too frustrated.

Every moment we spend together, I'm walking the line between smothering him with affection and turning him loose into the world, where I can watch him safely from a distance.

Jonas is the strongest person I know. Stronger than even me, because he has yet to be jaded by the world. His positivity is never manufactured. He is real and true.
Jonas knows survival and persistence, and he has enough of each of those for ten kids his age.

I am thankful that Jonas's CHD is an afterthought. Bi-annual visits to the cardiologist, medicine every day, but we live an otherwise routine life.
Sometime between now and the time he starts Kindergarten, we'll be talking Fontan surgery. But why get ahead of ourselves? When you have a toddler, you take things day by day, because their moods change like the weather on a Floridian afternoon.

Happy Birthday, baby boy. Thank you for being the light of my life. You're my inspiration to work harder, be a better person, and not take even a moment of life for granted.

I LOVE YOU!