Lady Bug Hugs: 1st Birthday

Well ya'll its been a year since our little girl came into this world! To say its been a whirlwind would be an understatement. We've had the best and the hardest year of our lives simultaneously. Its been amazing that we've been blessed with her for an entire year I can't even believe it. She's such a trooper. She is tougher then anyone I know and I know she is far tougher then myself. She's been through 3 major surgeries, 4 hospital stays and I can't even count the amount of doctors and therapy appointments that we've had. We've been greatly blessed by so much love and support that it makes my heart swell to know how loved we are. We celebrated her birthday with quite the gathering! It was so much fun to be surrounded with so much love and to know that it's all because of one little girl. That's so neat!

We held off on giving Emma any kind of sugar until she got a taste of her birthday cake. As adventurous as she is i thought for sure she'd dive right into it. However she wanted nothing to do with her cake. She tasted it I'll give her that but that was all she wanted to do with it.

She did good with all the people around and all the noise. Ever since she had her shunt replaced at the end of January she's been pretty shy around a lot of people let alone a lot of people that she's not familiar with. But she was her chipper self as usual.

We are trying to get her approved for a dynamic stander. Its a pretty neat device that will fully support her so that she can stand and wheel herself places. However the insurance doesn't seem to think it's medically necessary nor do they see a benefit to children standing that don't have independent mobility. So my fight begins. Our insurance is great don't get me wrong and I'm so grateful for it however when they come at me saying there is no medical basis for a device that's what gets my blood boiling. We told our pediatrician this and she had a PERFECT response. She said "lets take away their independent mobility for a few weeks and then see how badly they want to stand". Well said doc well said. So thankfully Children's has a department that will deal with the appeal and fingers crossed Anthem listens. Otherwise they are going to have to deal with ME... You read that to yourself in your most stern serious voice right? Because that's just how I typed it.

We finished our last session of aquatic therapy for a while. Children's does it where it is a 6 week intensive program and then its a home program for 6-8 months and then back for another 6 weeks. We love Patti our therapist she is so sweet and a great instructor and she just LOVES Emma (well heck who doesn't love this little girl). So now Ems and I will be swimming it out at the healthplex. We go to clinic on Monday and get to see all the doctors. I'm excited to show Emma off to them and to prove just how AMAZINGLY AWESOME she is doing. I'll keep ya posted on how that goes.

Thank you sooooooooooooooo much from the bottom of mine and Peter's and the rest of our families hearts for the support and prayers you all give to us. We are truly blessed! Please keep the prayers coming, please continue to pray for good health and that her shunt continues to function properly. Thank you all your so wonderful to us!

Alright enough with the chatter, now onto the pictures!!!

This was her first taste of Chinese food. I think she really liked it despite the look she is giving me here.

Kisses for the best girl around!

These pouches are her most favorite thing ever in the whole wide world of anything ever invented. But seriously she LOVES them. Yes she is enjoying one while in the middle of the store. Yes I'm that mom!!! :)

This was a birthday present from family in TN (shout out y'all). Anywho, she really likes it. It helps her practice sitting up while being independent.