My baby is 2!!!!!

Kasey is 2 years old as of today.... How did that happen? Sometimes it feels like it's been years that this has been my life, with my kids, that they have been here forever. Some days I can't believe she is already 2!

We have a small family party scheduled for her tomorrow. So, we have been pretty focused on the party being on Saturday. So, it took me until about 9:30am this morning, while sitting at MOPS to realize that TODAY is her birthday! OOPS! I texted Hubby to remind him, he had forgotten too!

So, we celebrated tonight. We met up with the P's at Red Robin and had a super fun dinner, which of course included the wait-staff singing Happy Birthday to her, giving her an ice cream sundae and 2 balloons! She loved it and she ate the entire sundae on her own! (I was kind of hoping she would leave a bite or 2 for me!)

From there we went to Costco to get some of the stuff for her party tomorrow, which includes brisket. The P's came with us, we got Whitney a Costco card, we had one free one left on our account. After shopping, when we all came outside, there were fireworks! No, really! The Sky Sox had their home opener tonight, and when they win, they shoot off fireworks, and it was right across the street from where we were, so we stopped, along with several other people and watched! It was neat! Kasey kept saying "ooooooooooo". It was a super fun night! And tomorrow the little girl gets a party!

Her vocab has been exploding recently! She finally for the first time the other night told me that she loves me back! Usually when we say "I love you" to her, she says "ok". The other night she responded with "I love you". It wasn't quite that clear, but I defiantly got the jist of what she was saying! Tonight, at Costco, in the fruit section, she said "Whitney". She has also started to say "Reagan" who is the little girl her age who lives across the street. It's so fun to listen to her! And it's so fun when she adds a new word!

Meanwhile, Courtney had a neurology appointment a few days ago. Her neurologist is happy with the progress she has made from a few years ago. He said she still has some weaknesses but she is on the right track. He also said that we don't need to plan on bringing her back to see him unless she does some major backsliding or we have questions. He doesn't expect that she will backslide, but he is always there, just in case!

Courtney also had a feeding clinic evaluation. Recently she has stopped eating a lot of foods she used to love. We really noticed it with the main parts of dinner, like chicken, steak and pork. She used to love all those things, but the last few months it has been like pulling teeth to get her to eat them. Her OT was concerned enough to send her to be evaluated by the feeding clinic within the pediatric rehab system. So, she had her evaluation, and it looks like her oral motor muscles have really backslid since she got out of speech therapy one year ago. They think she stopped eating those tough things to eat because it was her body's way of saying "it's not safe for me to eat these". She really likes fish however, but fish is very easy to eat! So, she is going to start in a feeding clinic to help her strengthen her oral motor muscles. They said as kids grow and change it's possible for them to lose strength in some areas they were already weak in, so it's not too surprising to them that this happened.

Hubby and I got to spend a lot of time together this past week, but not all of that was a good thing. I know you have heard me talk about the Z's here before. Kelly's mom, Carol, passed away last week. She had gone into the hospital for hip replacement surgery on Monday, and on Thursday she ended up passing away. It's a long and complicated story of what happened on Wednesday and Thursday that week, but ultimately it looks like it was probably a blood clot that caused her to pass away. It's heartbreaking.

Probably the hardest part was the fact that Tony and Kelly had to tell their girls, 7 and 4. Kelly's mom lived down the street from them and she watched the girls several days a week from the time the 7 year old was born. So, the girls were all pretty close to Grandma. Second, that is Kelly's mom.

Tuesday night was the viewing. That was tough. It's hard to see those left behind in so much pain and sadness. Plus it was hard to see Carol laying in the casket. It just makes it all so real. We have gone to many a family party at the Z's house where Carol and her husband Dick were in attendance. Heck, we have even gone to several parties at Carol and Dick's house. So, it was hard for us to say goodbye as well.

Wednesday was the funeral. Following the Catholic Mass we headed down to the cemetery. There was a small service at the graveside. From there we headed to Dick and Carol's house for a reception. Courtney went home from preschool with a friend in her class and Kasey was up at Children's Playroom, so the girls were taken care of for the day. Which was good, it was a tough day and trying to deal with the girls on top of it would not have been fun.

We just pray for speedy healing for the Z family. I can't imagine what they are going through right now.

So, this week felt a little longer than most weeks.

But tomorrow is Kasey's party! And I really hope that she has a good time. She will be the center of attention and surrounded by close friends and family who love her!

Well, suddenly it's late and I should go to bed.. I will leave you with one picture from Florida, of our now 2 year old, in her favorite place at Grammy and Granddad's house! Night all!