'Bird'day Girl

I can't believe Averi is already 2 years old!  I feel like life is crawling along right now but I also refuse to accept that Averi has blessed our family for so long.  The last two years have been completely different than anything I had planned, but I wouldn't change them for the world!

To celebrate her birthday, I made a milk, soy, oat, and rice free cake just for Averi (don’t worry, I also made 4 dozen more yummy cupcakes to share with everyone at the hospital).  I modeled the cake after Averi’s favorite toy, a little bird that she loves so much the color is starting to rub off.

Other than signing bird when she saw it, she wasn't as excited about the cake as I thought she would be.  All the nurses came and sang happy birthday and then we handed the cake over to Averi.  She put one finger in the icing and decided she was done.

Thinking she would get the idea if she tasted the cake, I put a piece in her mouth.  She then proceeded to cry and gag until I dug the cake back out of her mouth.  It was a great display of my awesome parenting skills for the nursing staff. :)

It was a good thing we put her in a gown so she wouldn't get icing all over her dress when she dug in.

 (Sisters telling birthday secrets.)

After partying in the family lounge down the hall, we headed back to Averi's room.  Kaili insisted on bringing her new tent to the hospital so she and Averi could sit in it while opening presents.

Averi, always the cautious one, wasn't too energetic about opening the presents either.  Kaili wasn't patient enough to let Averi warm up and opened almost all of them before Averi could even get her fingers on them.  It was very funny.

On the rare occasion that Averi tore a piece of wrapping paper off, she wouldn't tear any more until that piece was removed from her presence.  She gets her neatness from her mama.

Averi was very excited about her presents, especially the jumbo jars of baby sweet potatoes.  My favorite was the new shoes we got for her.  We tried them on her to make sure they fit over her new orthodics, and they did.  The size difference with everything on is enough to make anyone giggle.

Although it was one more holiday to mark off that we spent in the hospital, it was still a lot of fun.  Thankfully, Averi is young enough that it didn't matter where we were, and the nurses were great company compared to the empty house we would have had at home (since we can't have anyone over right now without first dousing them in sanitizer).

The only bad thing that happened today was that Averi's ANC dropped back down to 0 after two days in the teens, but it won't stay down for long.  We will be out of here soon and moving on to her final treatment.

Averi, we love you so much and look forward to spending many more birthdays with you!