This Train

Desmond has two teeth and has learned how to clap. He applauds when I walk into the room and cries when I leave. He eats like a mack truck and Shane and I think about when we have two teenagers eating us out of house and home.

We took him to the surgeon a few weeks ago for a check up. A chest x-ray revealed that his patch seems to be a little loose on one side although the stitches and staples have not moved since his last chest x-ray. A week after surgery Desmond's breathing accelerated and the Dr.s worried that his patch had de-hissed or popped open on one side. A chest x-ray was inconclusive and so there was a dye procedure that proved that it was holding tight. And so we are reminded that our little bionic boy does indeed have a piece of gortex inside of him.

This morning Shane let me sleep in. 8:00 AM feels like the 11:00 AM of my twenties. What did I do with my time and my money before I had children?

A 20 something year old woman passed out on the train tracks right in front of Shane. The lights of an incoming train were visible and people started screaming. As the woman lay sprawled across the tracks and the train got closer and closer, Shane thought about his two kids and knew that he needed to go home--he would not jump onto the tracks to get her. Astonishingly, the screaming woke the woman up and she jumped up and reached into the air. Shane was able to grab her arm and he said he pulled as hard as he could to get her onto the platform. They sat together on the bench. He said that she was really out of it and that wanted to vomit. He never even learned her name.

Forget about underlying health issues. Forget about a patch. We all sort of live so close to the edge at all times. Bam.