HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MUNCHKAOODLES!

Avery officially turns 2 years old in the next 30 mins....needless to say we are elated. It's been a great day for all of us and we are so happy to be at home celebrating her birthday. Last year we made a desperate attempt to celebrate her 1st birthday at St Jude -- with the 3 of us and a defunct cupcake we bought at the cafeteria. Needless to say it was not memorable, nor worthy of what this little girl deserves. This year we are bound and determined to make up for it. That means the best cake, the best balloons, the best outfit, the best presents and most importantly the best friends. Avery's Superhero Birthday Party is tomorrow afternoon and it will be a wild and crazy 2 hours filled with lots of sugar and running toddlers. We are all pumped!

Today we took Avery in for an evaluation at a Rehab Clinic in Kansas City. We have been working with the county the last 6 months and they have done a good job but we felt like Avery needs more aggressive therapy if we want to help her walk. So starting when we return from St Jude, she will be going to Therapy 3 times a week. We are really excited as her energy levels have been so great the last few months and she has showed some great progession in wanting to walk. We then ended the day with a trip to Fritze's Train Restaurant where the food is literally delivered by a toy train and gourmet cupcakes worth about 1000 calories a piece. She loved it all.

We attempted snow and sledding today....no go for both again. She was furious at Dad for the sledding encounter and not happy when snow sprayed in her face. I think she's more of a beach gal...and who can really blame her? We head out Sunday morning for our trip to Memphis. It feels good to be going back to St Jude -- we feel very comfortable there and really miss that secure feeling they provide us. We have asked to have her Hickman Line taken out and replaced with a port, which is under the skin. We'll see what they say. A port allows Avery to do some things that she can't with the Hickman like swim, take a bath, get wet in general...oh and the last 2 weeks she has shown an increased interest in the Hickman, which means we find her ripping the tape off the line whenever she is left alone for more than 30 seconds. This is an issue obviously -- I literally caught her red-handed, peeling the tape off her line during a nap the other day. And this girl doesn't make a peep when she wakes up so she could be in there for hours playing with it while we think she is sleeping - yep needs to go. We'll see if the doctors agree. She will also get all of her 5-7 cavities filled next week....yes I said 5-7 -- and yes some of those teeth have only been up for a few months. Don't even get me started. They have us set up for a Auditory Brain Scan which will check her hearing again, as well as a behavioral test to see how smart she is. We've already decided we are ok with an Average child - so no worries that radiation made her dumb. We figure she was brilliant to start with and is now average - so she'll fit in more...well except for that hair thing. We have to get her some hair. Poor lady at the rehab place decided Avery was a boys name and she looked like a boy so she referred to her as a He/Him all day. Yes she was wearing pink - that doesn't seem to matter to people though.

Thanks to all the well wishers on safe travels. We are bound and determined to have a much better trip to St Jude than the one in October. And this time she loves the DVD movie machine so Mommy and Daddy will have a much better drive as well!

Jenn