I'm 2

Today is Ellie's second birthday!

I'm 2!

Considering the statistics that we were given when Ellie was born, there should be a parade or fireworks today. Two years on TPN, bright smiling, and in the 70th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height. Amazing. Cue the band.

We (and our supply omegaven) are a long way from the dreary outlook that we had back in 2006 (link to scary numbers), but we still have a long way to go.

Ellie birthday was dampened by her mothers stomach flu but we still had a good day with her. In fact, we had a better day with a stomach flu than without since I would have traveled to Maryland early this morning if Abby hadn't barfed at 3 AM. It was fairly important trip for me but weighed against possible gastroenteritis, a stay at Children's and a possible line infection, it took about 30 seconds to cancel my plans at 3:05 this morning.

My email to my boss this morning went something like this: 'Abby is sick. If she passes it on to Ellie, Ellie will end up in the hospital. Can you find someone else to pinch hit for me?'

There really isn't an answer to that and the boss was very cool about it. Nothing like a good boss.

Instead of flying to Annapolis I was on Ellie duty keeping her away from her mom as much as I could to keep her from getting whatever bug Abby might have had. Fortunately by dinnertime Abby was eating but still feels lousy which makes us think that it might have been something she ate.

So I spent the day taking Ellie for walks in the sun, playing at the playground and trying to get some work done. A tough triple but I think that I pulled it off. Ellie didn't complain.

Her birthday was low-key again this year and for the second year in a row she had no interest in cake except smearing some frosting on her face. We didn't expect it but gave it a whirl, narrowly avoiding Ellie putting her fingers in the candle flame....

She got a kitchen from her grandparents and we managed to get Ellie a Madeline doll which was better than we had expected.

Abby even got off the couch for presents but quickly returned. She feels better but still rotten.



Her Madeline doll is just great.
A big rag doll with a trademark scar on her belly. Ellie knew exactly what it was and started pointing to her belly as soon as she saw Madeline. With the train tracks that run across her belly, having a doll that is like her but famous might make it a little bit better.

All in all an amazing feat to get here in such good shape. Somehow it hasn't seemed like we were doing anything special.

With a girl like this it all seems pretty easy.
The hard part is going back and reading the posts from back then. It has to be a really good day and usually we end up with Ellie in our lap which reminds us of how good things are.