Happy Birthday!

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed since our beautiful little baby girl was born and life forever changed as we knew it. A lot happened during Averi’s first year of life, a lot more than anyone should have to undergo in an entire lifetime, but she has endured it well.

At some points, time seemed to be standing still, but in whole, the last year has been a blur. It seems like forever ago that we were spending every waking hour inside the dark walls of the NICU.

It’s so strange to think that Averi is a whole year old, but I’ve decided that part of my denial is due to the fact that she doesn’t act like a one year old. Averi, we are so proud of you and so grateful that you decided to join our family.

We celebrated Averi’s birthday by going out to get frozen custard, which was obviously more for me than it was for her.
The beautiful birthday girl. I LOVE those eyes. They show her every emotion.

Nutrition gave us the go-ahead to start slowly adding dairy into her diet, so we started her off with a few bites of yogurt and a small taste of custard. I’m not sure how she felt about it.

After dessert, we went to a Greek restaurant (more dairy and soy!). Everyone sang to her and they even gave her a piece of cake. We let her tear into it, even though she couldn’t eat any of it.

As it turned out, she was more interested in eating the napkin anyways.

Kaili was a great big sister and helped her eat her cake (the rest of us did too).

Since it was her birthday, we thought it was only appropriate that we attend the 5K Buddy Up Walk for Down Syndrome. The weather was beautiful! My dad even came up for the weekend to spoil us and help us keep a decent pace during the walk.

Kaili couldn’t wait to get her face painted and we couldn’t leave Averi out. Note the shirts that Dan’s parents sent the girls for Averi’s birthday – “My Sister is my BFF.”


At the end of the day, we went home and let Averi ‘open’ her presents. It was a perfect day. Happy Birthday Averi! We love you.