Happy 5th Birthday Emma!

Our big girl Emma is officially 5 years old!  She is beyond excited because this means that she gets to go to kindergarten in the fall.  Otherwise known as "the big kids school."  And the big kids school is oh so cool.  She reminds Anna every day that she is way too little to go to the big kids school. 

Grandma and Grandpa were in town to help celebrate and we had a relaxing and fun day.  No big parties this year, and no big outing or surprise, but she had a super fun day filled with all sorts of things that brought a smile to her face.  She woke up with balloons all over the floor of her bedroom to surprise her and a house decorated in Ariel decorations - her very favorite.

So happy to see balloons everywhere

Anna, on the other hand, was not happy to see the decorations.  She immediately started crying when she saw them and screamed "When is MYYYY birthday?"  Emma got to open a couple presents first thing in the morning and Anna was even more upset.  The kind of upset where she immediately threw herself onto the ground face first and just screamed.  Girlfriend wanted it to be her birthday so she could have all of the presents:)

Anna in all out meltdown mode because she didn't have any presents

Emma excited to open her morning gifts.  Notice Anna's legs sticking out in the background.  She was still crying.

 

 

How old are you?

Sister love

After breakfast Grandma, Emma, and I had a pedicure together (since it was mother's day too, we thought it would be fun to all celebrate together:).  The the three of us had lunch at Emma's favorite restaurant Jason's Deli.  We went back home and enjoyed an afternoon in the pool.  The girls had a blast finally getting into the pool.  It was only 69 degrees and a bit cold for mom so dad got the job of playing with them in the cold water.

Of course Emma had to play with all of her mermaids.

 

Emma picked an ice cream cake this year and it was YUMMY!

She had a great birthday and received tons of wonderful gifts.  She is one lucky girl and we are two lucky parents to have such a loving, beautiful, vivacious daughter.  We are so proud of how caring and smart she is!  We tried to get a cute picture of the girls with grandma and grandpa before they left and this is what most looked like:

Anna loves to exaggerate her "cheeeese"

 We got one cute one:

 

A few fun facts about Emma at 5:

Favorite color: purple

What she wants to be when she grows up:  Consistently answers either a mermaid or a veterinarian

Is in the 65th percentile for height and weight

Favorite princess: Ariel

Although she still loves her princesses she might be turning the corner towards Barbie - she LOVES her new barbies and barbie movies

Favorite movie today (changes weekly): Barbie Mermaidia

Loves playing outside - watering flowers, bubbles, "painting" the driveway, playground, and swimming

Hates: Socks.  Princesses don't wear socks and she doesn't ever want to either. 

 

On an unrelated note we traveled to Houston earlier this week to meet all of Anna's new specialists.  It was a very long day and we met with many of the doctors from the TSC clinic at UT Childrens Hospital including the genetecist, nephrologist, and neurologist.  Overall, we were impressed with her new doctors and feel like she is in good hands.  Anna got great reviews from all of them.  She then had a kidney ultrasound and we received the results from her blood work that all showed her kidneys are working great!  Yay Anna!  She does have multiple cysts and AML's (fatty tissue areas) in each kidney that need to be closely monitored.  At this point we will follow up with the neurologist every 6 months and nephrologist every year.  The next big step for us will be in August when we go back to Boston to complete our study at Boston Childrens Hospital and she has an MRI to monitor the nodules in her brain.  We keep praying that those don't grow!

 

Anna has had some type of virus this week that has been horrible.  Today was day 4 with a fever.  She finally seemed to be feeling better today with a low temp of 100.  Earlier in the week it was much higher, up to 105, and mom was a nervous wreck pacing the house.  I was sleeping in her room with her just because I wanted to keep a close eye on her.  With the high temps I am so nervous that she could have a seizure.  The doctor said the fever should only last up to 5 days.  I will feel better if tomorrow she kicks the low fever for good!  We have exciting plans this week that I will reveal in a later post.  I don't want her fever to keep us from doing what we had planned!!