Happy 4th Birthday Emily!!!!

Today was Emily's 4th birthday! We had a fairly typical day and then had a bbq dinner to celebrate Emily and her accomplishments this year. I know she is not fully aware of what day it is, but we are and therefore it is worth celebrating. Tucker helped blow out the candles.

We tried giving her a taste of cake by putting frosting on her pacifier but she gaged so we stopped. Tucker made up for any lack of interest she had in the eating the cake! We were joined by Beth and her daughter Kaya, Grandpa Don and Uncle Paul, and the Pitts family. Some of you may remember last years birthday picture - Emily was sitting in a Bumbo chair showing potential in sitting completely on her own. Well, thanks to Reliv and God's grace, Emily learned how to sit on her own about 5 months ago! She made consistent progress in gaining strength and balance and now gets into a sit, changes position, and gets herself back on the floor smoothly and easily. We do still take precautions to keep her surroundings safe as she falls hard if she has a seizure while sitting. Oh, and now that she is up and enjoying her world from a different view, she is also making purposeful eye contact and playing with more toys around her. Her bald spot is even getting smaller - finally. As you can see in this picture, Emily is now bearing weight on her legs! She can not stand yet,but no longer needs to be held up. Here, she is leaning against me as she locks her knees and I hold her for balance, but notice she has enough strength and balance of her own to hold herself from the waist up! We just recently caught her making a few commando crawling moves and attempting a high kneel. Just thinking about what God may do over this next year is so exciting. We are so proud of our Emily Rose! Well, after an eventful evening Emily crashed! But not to our surprise it was only a cat nap. Happy Birthday Emily!