I'm 3!!!

Hi there everybody! Sorry I missed a week there. I've got a lot to share so lean on in, because Mom said I have to use my "inside" voice.

As some of you may know, Mom and Dad looked into taking me to the Kennedy Kreiger Institute at Johns Hopkins with the hope the clinicians there would help me learn how to eat. Unfortunately, our health insurance declined to cover my potential medical expenses and Johns Hopkins was no longer an option.

Despite the bad news, I didn't let it keep my down. In fact, something remarkable happened. While Dad was gearing up to do battle with the insurance company, Mom continued to work very hard with me. Guess what!

I am now eating pureed foods and drinking water and milk at every meal. In fact, I have not been fed through my G-tube for a little over a week now!

So what else is new you ask? Well, my cousin Grayson celebrated his 1st birthday! We went to his house for a party. Aunt Maresa and Uncle Casey made a terrific meal that everyone enjoyed. Here are Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Mike enjoying dinner. Dad is just to Uncle Mike's left getting seconds on the macaroni and cheese!

I had lots of fun at Aunt Maresa and Uncle Casey's house. Liam and I rode around in his wagon together.

Then we watched as Grayson opened his presents. His mom, Aunt Maresa helped a little.

After that my cousin Liam and I found a big box to play in. Uncle Mike helped us figure out what to do with it.

Ummm, I think I'm stuck.

A little help please!

Someone else had a birthday this week too. Can you guess who?

That's right! Daisy had her birthday too. She is 10 years old. Happy birthday Daisy! Daisy got a bag of treats for her birthday. After Mom opened it, I grabbed the bag by the bottom and dumped all the treats on the floor. It was like someone threw a bag of cash across the freeway. Mom was trying to scoop them up while Daisy was eating them as fast as she could. She was like a little brown vacuum cleaner! Her birthday wish for a pinata came true.

Alright, alright - any idea who else had a birthday? That's right it was me!

Waaaaahooo! Okay, so I don't look too excited in this picture. You have no idea how hard it is to work one of those things. Can you guess how old I am?

Yup. That's right, I'm 3!! I started my birthday celebration with a trip to the zoo with Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and Dad!

We had lots of fun. We saw bears, and a moose, and a bobcat - Go Cats! - and an elephant, and .......

Somehow Dad still managed to find a computer to look at - even at the zoo. After that we rode the carousel together!

We all took a boat ride around the zoo! It was fun. After the boat ride, we saw a really big lizard on a rock. Mom told me it was a komodo dragon.

I really like saying "komodo dragon" now. Keep your hands and feet in the boat Grandma and Grandpa!

Then we went to visit some of my favorite animals at the zoo - the goats!!!

Hi goats!!

You guys see any goats around here? No? Okay. Waaaaaait a minute.

Get back here. You guys are the goats.

Now you might think that chasing goats around the zoo is the most fun you can have. But there was even more fun just around the corner.

I rode the Dumbo ride with Mom 3 times.

I had a big day at the zoo.

But it was time to head home. We still had more birthday celebrating to do. Mom and Dad followed me around all day long asking me how old I was.

Mom stayed up really late and made a special cupcake birthday cake for me.

Megan is decorating her own cupcake with sprinkles.

Then it was time to open up presents. But first, one more picture of Mom's little cupcake.

We opened presents at Dad's parents' house.

Then we opened presents at Mom's parents' house.

We even had a little more cake!

Well that was pretty much it for my birthday. Presents, cupcakes, you know all the really good birthday stuff. It was a good thing it didn't last too long because I had to get back to my temp job.

I'm the Olympic torch bearer.

U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A.

See you guys next week. Beauty queen wave.

Beauty queen wave. See you guys next week.