Sweet Aria - You are THREE!! You are our smily little peanut, but oh how you have grown over the course of a year. Your special day was full of lots of giggles and fun plus a little work. You are the hardest working toddler I know! But your hard work is paying off in spades as you amaze us every day with your determination and ingenuity.
After a low-key day, it was soon time to celebrate with dessert! Your favorite thing to do these days is to play catch with whatever object you can get your hands on. I knew as soon as you grabbed her birthday cupcake, it would go flying. So it was no surprise that you smashed it into pieces and tossed it to and fro.
Your big birthday celebration came a few days later on New Year's Day. The party was small due to COVID, but luckily Nana Bev, Popi Jerry, Nana Judy and Uncle Jason could attend.
You had yet another Baby Shark birthday party this year - just like last year. You adore Baby Shark! So of course, a Baby Shark dress and cake were in store.
After a yummy lunch from Noodles and Company, it was time for cake. Your adorable Baby Shark cake was made by Mama Bear's Sweets. It turned out perfect and was oh so delicious! But I knew the moment I set down your slice that it would go sailing. You are quite the little stinker!
Once your hands were scrubbed clean of frosting and chocolate cake, we headed downstairs to give your new swing a test run. And oh boy, did you love it! You did not want to get out.
Little Miss Aria, you continue to amaze us everyday! You keep proving all the doctors wrong with your incredible determination. One of our top goals this year was weight gain, and you crushed it! You gained over 8 pounds and hit the 2nd percentile on the growth chart. None of your doctors or specialists thought it was possible, but you showed them! Talk of getting a g-tube has finally fallen off the table. Now we just need to be sure to keep it that way.
Another priority has been your hips. Your hips were in pretty bad shape due to the spasticity in your legs. They were over 60% out of socket when we agreed to move forward with surgery to lengthen the tendons around your hips. Your orthopedist hoped that this procedure would give us another few years before you'd need a more invasive boney hip surgery. But once again, you are leaving your doctors speechless. Your hip X-rays show such drastic improvement that your orthopedist is cautiously optimistic that your hips will continue to improve with no other surgeries. And you are such a trooper! You've been wearing a hip brace called a Maple Leaf for about 20 hours each day. The brace helps keep your legs abducted and with continued wear, should keep those hips in the proper place until they can dig into those sockets where they will hopefully stay. To get those hip sockets forming correctly, you stand in your stander for at least 90 minutes each day. For the most part, you enjoy your time in your stander and have even figured out a way to maneuver yourself back and forth along the kitchen island.
Since your surgery, you have so much more range of motion in your legs that you are cruising around even better in your gait trainer. You can get just about any place you want and are starting to figure out how to turn corners. Although you still do get stuck quite often on the legs of chairs or the corners of the rugs. You are one curious little peanut. Your favorite places to investigate in your gait trainer are the pantry, mudroom and bathroom. Somehow you manage to maneuver into these fairly tight areas. When I back you out of your room of choice, you are sure to let me know how unhappy with me you are.
In the latter part of the year, we took a step back to focus on the fundamentals of rolling, and boy, did you nail it! By October, you were rolling like a pro and lifting your head up from the ground. What a wonderful sight to see! We were so proud of you, and you were pretty proud of yourself too. By the time you turned three, you were doing 360 rolls all the way across the room in both directions!
You gave your Mama a real good scare this past winter with a first for both of us - a first ever seizure for you/first time witnessing a seizure for me and first time riding in an ambulance for both of us. Those were some "firsts" that I had been hoping would never happen. Thankfully you bounced back quickly from your seizure. I'm not sure that you were even aware of what all the fuss was about. But I don't think your Mama will ever sleep soundly again. Both seizures happened during your sleep so what used to be a quiet time to get things done is now time spent starting at the video monitor and checking your heart rate and oxygen levels on my phone.
You can give one heck of a pinch! I must say 'OUCH' a dozen times a day. You'll get a sly look in your eye and go in for the squeeze. You've even drawn blood on many an occasion. Your poor old mom's hands are all scarred from your wicked pinching skills that you love to use, especially when I give you your meds. Your other mischievous move is to grab a handful of hair from whoever you can (mom, sisters, even the kitties!) and yank as hard as you can. You love getting quite the reaction out of your loved ones.
Baby shark is your all time favorite song. You love bopping along to the beat. We've listened to the original and all the variations (techno Baby Shark, Monkey Banana, and so many more!) over and over and over again. As for TV shows, there's no doubt "Mighty Little Bheem" is your fav. It's about a toddler from India who has super strong powers. You watch it intently and giggle along with Bheem and his silly antics.
Lately you are rocking some stylish new glasses that you absolutely loathe. I can not get them on you longer than a couple minutes before you're grabbing and tossing them onto the floor. Maybe one day, you'll realize you can see better. But for now, you are definitely not a happy camper when Mom tries to sneak them on you.
Girl, can you squeal! You have one loud set of lungs on you. Usually it's your siblings that bring out the sheer amount of joy that you simply can not contain yourself. You sure do think they are funny. And they sure do enjoy making you happy!
You give the most AMAAAAZING hugs! When you tightly wrap that little left arm around my neck and lay your head on my shoulder, time stops for a moment. I just have to pause what I'm doing and enjoy the love from my sweet little girl. Your hugs fill my heart with pure joy.
A very happy 3rd birthday to you, our amazing Aria Jean. You are one determined little peanut and we can not wait to see what wonderful things you accomplish in the next year!
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