tumor or humor? (no, nobody has cancer)

When Aiden was only about 8-9 months old, we had just moved to this new town and new house. It was a whirlwind of a couple of weeks as we got settled in, found our jobs, Target, etc. It had been about three weeks when Aiden started doing this "weird thing". I mostly noticed it when he was sitting in his high chair, eating, though he did it at other times too. He would be sitting there smiling and laughing and eating, then his little face would contort a little, his head would turn to the side, his eyes would roll back into his head and his head would twitch just a little. It would last about 2-5 seconds, then he would snap out of it. The first couple of times, I thought hmmm, that's kinda weird. Then it started happening a LOT. The thing that scared me the most, was that I couldn't make him snap out of it in the middle of it. I would clap my hands, call his name, nothing would get his attention until he was done.

We were so new in town, we hadn't even found a pediatrician yet, so we hurried and made an appointment with anyone we could, and took him in. I had just happened to catch a little shot of him doing it on our video camera, so I showed the doctor, and he said exactly what a was thinking. "Well, that looks like a little seizure."

He had us take him in for a sedated MRI and EEG to see what, if anything, was going on. I had nightmares of epilepsy, and what scared me even more, brain tumors. It reminded me of the little kids I took care of for a short time at Primary Children's who had shunts coming out of their little heads because of the tumors in their brains. We did the tests, it was so sad seeing him sedated, he looked lifeless. A little funny seeing him come off the drugs, however. At the time I was upset with myself that I forgot my camera, and I didn't take any pictures, but I'm glad we don't have pictures of that experience. It's one that I don't mind forgetting.

The MRI was completely negative, and the EEG was "slightly abnormal" but the neurologist couldn't find any real problem. Then I found out that EEG's in kids that little, no matter what, will read as abnormal because they are designed around adults brains, and kids brains are not nearly as developed, and thus they are different. So basically, they found nothing. Then, the "siezures" slowed, and then stopped completely. I was very glad that they stopped, and that nothing was wrong, but oh my goodness, that was an expensive little adventure!

Lately, Aiden has learned some new faces that make us laugh, or that at least get a reaction from us. This is one of them.

It starts out just like thisThen turns into a little bit of this,

Then this. Kind of freaky right? It's pretty similar, though not the same, as the "siezures". It's a little funnier in person, and now that we know it's nothing but our kid being wierd. He does it a lot when something is bothering his eyes, like in these pictures, the sun was shining in his eyes, and he said "momma the wind is blowing in my eyes!" (He doesn't know everything yet) then he made this face.

Now I have to wonder, was that just a face he was making way back then, and when he got a reaction from me, he just kept doing it till it got old, or was it just some wierd thing that he grew out of really fast. I guess we'll never know.