Happy Birthday Lake Louise

 

It’s here, it’s here… the birthday of sweet Lake Louise!

The year anniversary of one of the most intimidating and scary days of my life.

A year ago today I was praying so hard for Lake’s lungs to be developed so that she could withstand an open heart surgery and live through her severe heart defect.

365 days ago she was brought into this world and handed over to the Cook Children’s NICU team and I heard one strong cry before they put her on a ventilator.

That is when the first tear of celebration streamed down my face. She could cry! Praise God, she could cry.

A year ago she came to us appearing perfect from the outside. I stared at her through the window of her incubator and she was beautiful and without scars.

She had adorable wisps of dark hair and a beautiful frame.

She was all of 6lbs 1oz even at 3 weeks early.

She seemed just perfect to us.

She is perfect to us, despite the imperfections of her heart and brain.

In reality Lake is a gift, every single day.

Lake is now reaching many of the baby milestones!

She is so strong, determined, feisty, fun, and serious throughout the day and very loving.

She has yet to crawl, but loves to stand up while holding my hands and scooting around on her belly or while sitting.

She is almost always flat footed when she stands now!

Some of you may remember she used to curl up her right foot and it worried me with her stroke damage that she was having sensory issues.

Lake can wave bye bye and say “BAH!” and loves to babble, clap, sign more (aka clapping some more), throw her body backwards while mommy is holding her – as if it’s a game – and eat!!!

Boy does Lake love to eat. We have moved on from all soft foods to incorporating cheerios and crispy puffs!

Lake is delayed, but it is nothing I am worried about and I am definitely not ashamed to have a baby who needs more time.

We have all the time in the world to meet these milestones – why rush?

Lake had a blast at her birthday. She was pretty chill, which is her typical attitude (she is very much like her Daddy – at times so serious and she will give you the stare down).

March of Dimes came by to take some video footage of her birthday! We are the March of Dimes of Fort Worth Ambassador Family this year and will be introduced at their big fundraising event this fall.

Half way through the party Lake fell asleep in my friend’s arms! Cake time quickly approached and we had to wake her up, but she did NOT want to wake up. Finally my nephew accidentally popped a balloon she quickly woke up … scared for a moment. 🙂

You will see her serious “Did you really wake me up for this?” zoning face in her cake photos!

The party was a blast and we are so grateful for all of our friends and family who attended and helped make her first birthday party a huge success!

I didn’t have much time to socialize, but enjoyed having a house FULL of loved ones who all came to celebrate our precious Lake Louise!

Thank you all!

.love.

 

Special thanks to:

Shareen and Hilaree for helping make those darn tassels that seemed to take FOREVER, Shelby Crawford Events for helping me bring this festive party together, Funky Wright Designs for the invites, and my favorite Leah’s Sweet Treats for the “I cannot stop at just one” cupcakes and PERFECT smash cake (Love you girl!), my mother, mother-in-law, sis and bro-in-law for the prep work and clean up and photo taking. It really does take a village!