Happy Heart Day, Devon!

In the interest of maintaining some sort of peace in our home, I usually try my hardest to treat each of my children with equality. I am not always in the position to get them all things at once, but if one gets new shoes or a jacket I try to make sure the other two receive good things in the very near future. Most of the time this is a good system and all is good. However, there is one day during the year when I give it all to Devon. On his Heart Day he reigns king and all is his. Maybe not materially, but the day is his in nearly every way on November 4. It was this day three years ago when I relinquished him to the nurses at Denver Children’s Hospital and the surgeon cut through his back ribs and replaced his aorta. This was the day that gave him a chance at life. To me this day is bigger than his true birth date.
Although I bitch about him quite a bit here at Caloden, I cannot imagine a world without Devon in it. Sometimes when I think about his origins I cannot believe he even made it to this world. Matt and I were divorced and then reconciled, and us being us, I got pregnant with Devon. I hadn’t planned on a third child. I certainly had not planned on a third child with my ex-husband. But a third he is and my universe is a far better one for his presence. So on this day I give thanks for my Vanilla Tyrant. He is my wee wild child, my angel, my sweet baby boy. I give thanks for modern technology, good doctors, loving family. I give thanks to my three children who remind me of who I am and why we are here. It is truly all good.

We celebrated the day with a Shrek pinata that Cass and I filled with small toys rather than treats. We had to perform a bit of surgery on Shrek to get all the toys in, but that seemed fitting considering Devon had to have surgery to get to Heart Day. We had a few friends over for a late lunch, we busted the pinata and opened gifts. The weather was warm enough to play outside and blow some bubbles on the patio. Good times!