Little Lady Lupher is ONE!

What an amazing year this has been for our family! It was one emotional roller coaster but we ALL made it through with flying colors! Our precious little lady has blessed us each of the last 365 days and I am so honored to be her momma! If you follow our blog, you know the painful struggles we went through these last 12 months...the seizure she had at birth, the 3x she stopped breathing in the NICU, the 5 surgeries she has had - one of them being open heart surgery, the massive amount of time we spent in the hospital and all the doctors and therapist that now consume our daily lives. I truly believe that our strength in the past year has only come from one thing. I'm not shy about stating that I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and that Lee and I pray to raise Elle in a way that will glorify HIM. In her life and in our struggles - it has been through the power of prayer and our belief that the Lord is guiding us every step of the way that has made this past year truly inspiring and incredible.

Our sweet little one year old woke up with a fever on her birthday. She was just miserable! It wasn't the best day to wake up with a fever because it sent Lee and I into freak out mode (but more about that in another post). The poor little birthday girl spent the day with my mom while I did some training at work and then fell asleep at 4pm and didn't wake up until 7am the next day! Poor princess! She looks just miserable in her birthday pictures! What's going on in Elle's life? - Weighing in at 18lbs 6oz (3%) - 28 1/2 inches long (10%) - wearing 9month - 12 month clothing and some random 6 month outfits that are shirts now instead of dresses - can sit up all by herself from lying down but usually only pushes up from her right side...we're working on that left side - is pulling herself up more and more and even though she is super unsteady on her feet, when she is standing up, she tries to dance and wave and clap - pushed herself up onto her hands and knees (unassisted) for the first time on March 18 - doing great at army crawling - we're working on getting her onto hands and knees but she is at least attempting to do it on her own now! - has 6 teeth - 2 on top and 4 on bottom...now if we can just get those teeth to chew chew chew! - takes about an ounce from the bottle and is doing much better with swallowing puffs and yogurt melts. Baby food is in a league of it's own and while we are still working on it everyday, she's just not that interested and/or her tongue isn't coordinated enough to get the whole swallowing thing down - most of it ends up spit out of her mouth and on her clothes (she takes bibs off almost as soon as they are put on). - she is quite the little talker and pretty much babbles and talks non stop all day long - she says hi, momma, dada, and gwitt (for Witt) along with all sorts of baby babble - she is doing great at mimicking sounds - if you say "hi hi hi" she will imitate you and if you say "ba ba ba" she will imitate that as well - she tries really hard to make the same sounds that you make - she is wearing her hearing aids for longer and longer although the right one has been giving us problems lately - she may have fluid on her ear that is making it uncomfortable for her to keep her aid in - but her left one will generally stay in for hours at a time now! - she is REALLY excelling at her signs - she can sign momma, daddy, tree, girl, smart, beautiful, eat, more, drink, sleepy, dog, bunny, monkey, cow, fish, milk, bear, Witt, boy, fan - she recognizes all the signs as she does them - you show her a picture of a cow and she will sign cow...show her a tree and she signs tree...point to Lee and she says and signs dada... - she loves playing patty cake and peek a boo - my favorite thing is to ask her to "roll it up" and she rolls her chubby little arms over and over...I just love it! - she thinks every picture in our house is "Gwitt." She points to her pictures all over the house and will say and sign "Gwitt" for Witt - loves to watch her Baby Sign DVD - it will instantly calm her down and she will sit mesmerized and watch it for pretty much her entire feed (1hr and 15 minutes) - she is such a happy little girl and loves to be around people. She's unsure about strangers but will almost instantly warm up to just about anyone..especially men (uh oh!) - loves to wave at people and has the most intense stare I have ever seen! It is quite hilarious to watch her stare at a stranger and then break out into a smile and wave her chubby little hand! - loves to be outside - especially watching the trees blow in the wind - can really scoot around the house in her walker - she loves to roll around the kitchen and is learning how to maneuver it - she just recently figured out how to back up and turn the wheels to get around objects instead of continuously running into them. Her next feat will be how to make it over the tile and onto the carpet! - shes in therapy 5x a week and is slowly but surely making progress in all aspects that she needs help in We are so blessed by this little life! I am so exited to see where her story will lead us! It's hard to believe that a year has passed. I get so sad thinking about how quickly time has literally flown by! I never believed people when they would say "they grow up so quickly" but it is absolutely 100% true! I don't remember the first few months of Elle's life! I don't remember her being tiny - I don't remember the sleepless nights and pumping every 2 hours around the clock. I told one of my friends that God doesn't let mothers remember the pain of child birth because if you really remembered what it felt like, you probably wouldn't want to go through it again. I think the first few months of Elle's life are like that for me. Yeah - she went through a lot - our family went through a lot - but I don't really remember much of it. I vaguely remember sitting next to her bedside for 18 hours a day and then walking to the RoHo and falling into bed only to wake up and do it all the next day and I vaguely remember not leaving the hospital for days/weeks at a time . Maybe I just choose to forget the bad and only concentrate on the here and now and the fact that she is the light of our world. Often times Lee and I lay in bed just staring at her and smiling because that's what she does- she just makes you smile! I pray that the next year is filled with more smiles than tears and more laughs than sobs. I know this year was tough, but it is behind us and I am so happy and proud to say Happy 1st Birthday Elle Belle!