Camille Turned Eight!

Yesterday was Camille's birthday!  It was a school day and Camille was concerned that her teacher hadn't sent home the poster that is supposed to be read on your birthday in her class.  It turned out that one of her parents put the wrong date for her birthday on the teacher's information sheet--it was an honest mistake.

We sent treats for her class yesterday and we finished the poster this morning so she could take it in today.

Here she is covering her ears while her brothers sing VERY loudly.

For her birthday dinner, she requested this dinner that no one loves as much as she does:  6-Can Chicken Tortilla Soup.  We serve it with rice.  You make it with literally 6 cans of various ingredients--the easiest dinner ever.  We always have it when we camp because it requires nothing fresh.

Her amazing Activity Days leader brought over a chocolate cake the day before so I didn't even have to make a cake for her--she decided that was the cake she wanted to have.  I said, what about the pink frosting that's been sitting in our fridge for months that we were saving for your birthday?  She said, let's save it for the cupcakes that we'll be having at her party on Saturday.

We're so glad that Camille is still with us in this life.  Every child is a miracle but Camille is an especially miraculous child.  She has had so many health challenges in her short life (something like 10 surgeries and 6+ months in the hospital) but she is doing well.  I really enjoy her sweet personality, which is not to say that she doesn't challenge us...

She was born at 23.5 weeks gestation and weighed 1 lb. 5 oz.  These pictures were taken the day after her birth--we have no pictures from her birth.  It was all too fast and too traumatic.

 Her big accomplishment recently is not using her feeding tube!  We have been working on this for a few months (see this post) and on Saturday I decided to go for broke.  For the last several days, we haven't used the feeding tube at all.  I won't say it's easy--she has to drink 64 ounces of fluid every single day and it can be pretty challenging to fit all that in.  Yesterday I went to school after her lunch to make sure she finished all her water.  But I am hopeful that the more we do it, the easier it will become.

My mother sent her some American Girl doll clothes for her birthday so she and Mindy spent the weekend playing with their American Girl-type dolls.