We've been on a hiatus of sorts this week - decompressing from the weekend festivities and managing a busier than average week with two doctors appointments and a trip to Cincinnati.

First I will start with the birthday party!  Oh what a party we had!  It was so wonderful to have so many friends and family here to celebrate such a momentous occasion!  We thought that Mother Nature might be a spoil sport but after some morning showers, it cleared up quite nicely in time for the party!  Perhaps one of the most special parts of the day is all of the people who were here that had never had a chance to meet Finley until that day.  Finally everyone got to see our little princess.  And although we asked guests to make donations to Children's Memorial Hospital or the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation (and they did!), Finley also got tons of very sweet and very thoughtful gifts - very special gifts that were so touching!  There was the ornament that my cousin's wife Julie painted that had all of the information from Finley's invitation - the number of days in the hospital, ER visits, surgeries - it was just SO beautiful!  One of Mike's friends from work, the Stoebber family, made a card for Finley - it said "Happy Birthday Finley Roth" and each letter was made from something different - popsicle sticks, cotton balls, sandpaper - and it was designed so that Finley could touch it and enjoy all of the different textures!  Amazing!  And then there was this: Finley's Birthday Video  This beautiful video was put together by my dear friend Lynne.  Words just cannot describe how much we loved this (or how much I bawled my eyes out when I watched it the first time).  There were many, many more, very special and very thoughtful gifts, too many to even list here - so a huge THANKS to everyone because again - we truly do have the best friends and family in the world!  And, to top off the most beautiful birthday ever - Channel 5 news ran Finley's picture in their "First Birthdays" segment on Monday morning!

Finley enjoying her birthday cupcake!

Cousins!

On the the Finley updates!  As I mentioned last week, I was stalking the immunologist all week to get Finley's test results.  Well, he finally called me back on Friday at 5:30 pm!  The good news is, Finley's T-cells were at a good level - not as high as most people but well above the level in which they would be considered low - and they had more than doubled since her last test in April which is VERY good!  She did make antibodies to her last Tetanus vaccine - which again is very good and something they were looking for.  Her T-cell response to the Tetanus vaccine though was lower than they'd like it to be and so the doctor still doesn't want her to have any live vaccines until she can be retested - which will be about a month after her next Tetanus booster.  This means that we will have to hold off on getting her chicken pox and MMR vaccines until the retest is complete.

Tuesday we went to visit the ENT.  I had purposely made the 7:45 am appointment because it was Dr. Holinger's first of the day and after last time, when we waited more than 2 hours for him - I thought this made perfect sense.  Umm, not so much - he didn't come in to see us until after 9:30 am!  Needless to say, I wasn't the happiest person in the world but I do love Dr. Holinger and I think he's a wonderful doctor so I am just thanking our lucky stars we don't need to see him more often!  He ended up scoping Finley in the office and remarked that she still had pretty significant inflammation from her reflux.  He wants to do another sedated hearing test in October which will be one full year since her first one and he will also do a bronchoscopy at the same time.  For any other child this would be a simple outpatient deal - but for our Finley - she'll need to be admitted the night before to be put on IV fluids to regulate her blood sugar.

Wednesday Finley went to see the cardiologist.  Mike took her because I was in Cincinnati for a client meeting.  At her appointment she had another echo to check the pressure in her heart and I am SO happy to report that it has gone down even further - 20%!!!  At her last appointment 6 weeks ago it was 27% which was just above normal (normal is 10-20%).  She is finally in the normal range -albeit at the high end of that range - but normal nonetheless!  Her doctor decided not to adjust her dose of Propranolol - in spite of her weight gain (she is weighing in at 22.5 lbs now!).  This was very good and very welcome news and a perfect way to start off Finley's second year.

Finley on her new SoftSpot (or 'lily pad' as Nate calls it)

And one last thing before I go - I find traveling pretty amusing and yesterday's trip did not disappoint.  Why is it that whenever there is a mechanical issue on the plane before we take off, the pilot feels the need to tell us?  Really?  I think the majority of the people on the plane would really rather not know.  And the people who, as soon as the plan comes to a stop at the gate and that little chime sounds, have their safety belts undone and they are out of their seats in the aisle trying to get off the plane.  Seriously?  I don't get that.  Perhaps my favorite thing yesterday though were the two girls who boarded our tiny regional jet, 5 minutes after everyone else on the plane had boarded, taken their seats, and buckled in, a full plane - and these two gals board the plane with two enormous musical instruments - just shy of the size of a guitar - and they wanted to fit them in the overhead bins.  They walked up and down the aisles, opened every overhead bin looking for space - and finally they checked them at the gate.  And all the while the flight attendant refrained from saying "I told you so".  I sat there thinking its no wonder more flight attendants don't snap like that one on the Jet Blue flight the other day - which by the way - I think is an AWESOME story.  Specifically because he grabbed a beer on the way out.  Now THAT is the way to go out!

Ruffle butt!

Nate's shiner from his cousin Gabi!

Finley modeling one of her new hair bows

Therapy on the exercise ball!