I Just Put Julianne to Bed and SHE'S 4 YEARS OLD!

Julianne joined us and took over our family when she was 2 1/2 years old. She just turned 4 years old! She got her self into staying up way too late when she had surgery last Tuesday and in PICU all night. She now is turning 4 today and was up to see the day come in. We sung Happy Birthday to her at midnight. lol

What is there to say in words to even describe my tiny princess??? My goodness and WOW are what come to mind. She is 4 now on July 20th of 2010. She weighs 26 pounds and we are just starting to buy some 3Ts even though we just put her to bed in a 24 month night gown. She is tiny but mighty! Julianne has Down Syndrome. That means that whereas most of us have 46 chromosomes in each of our cells, Julianne has 47! If you think about it, that just means that she has a little better idea of who she is than most of us. She isn't going to let anyone change one bit of her either! Of course, why would anyone? SHE IS SO PERFECT! She has more determination in her teeny tiny crooked pinky finger than most of the world combined. She is so stubborn that she should be biological! We've determined that 46 chromosomes is what we "need" to be ok, but 47 chromosomes makes you perfect!

Perfect she is too! She has 13 people in this household wrapped tightly around that tiny little pinky finger. She loves to be cute, which is good because WOW she is cute. She loves shoes, clothes, tutus, dresses, and hair bands. She loves music, chocolate, and dancing. She never gives up no matter what and overcomes things faster than anyone I've ever seen.

Just this year she has done and overcome so much. She eats everything by mouth now, which is huge since when she came home she didn't drink anything and had all of her nutrients given to her by gtube. She just had the gtube site repaired and her stomach repaired this past Tuesday. She came out of it a little sore, but is mainly mad that she can only have small amounts of foods and drinks at a time for 3 weeks. She had "swine flu" and was the first one of the 10 people in our family to kick "swine butt"! Her heart condition should have made it harder for her, but not my little girl. She can do anything that she sets her mind to and then go above what you would ever imagine.

Tonight she learned to go up the steps of the Step 2 Climber in the sensory room. She has been climbing up the slide itself for quite some time. Tonight I showed her how to use the ladder. After one time of showing her on just 1 step, she did it over and over. She then had to go a step above though and climb down the ladder. (You may want to pray for me because I bet I spend the next 2 months making sure she doesn't fall!) She went into the ball pit underneath it tonight too. I thought she'd play in there, but NO she was getting all the "other" balls out. No footballs, foam balls, or other miscellaneous balls will be in that ball pit on her watch! She then decided to show us that she can "sort" by colors and remove all of the purple balls while giggling.

All that is left to say is HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIANNE! I am truly blessed and thank God daily for letting me be the mommy of this little princess!