Juliana's Birthday Party

So, for those of you that don't know, Juliana hates celebrating her birthday.  And I don't mean hate, I mean HATE.  Like to the point that she actually gets physically sick to her stomach.  And it's not crowds, or lots of people, it's more the having all attention on her.  She does not like being the center of attention.  It only took us 5 years or so to figure this out.  I think it was last year when we finally said, "Hey wait a second, Juliana has thrown up every single birthday. I think she hates her birthday." So this year I asked her what kind of party she wanted and she told me with her computer that she wanted none.  I offered a bowling party, a skating parting, a swim party, one of those froo froo fancy parties and it was NO, NO, NO, NO!  So I finally talked her into a SMALL froo froo party with only 7 friends (because get it, she's turning 7.  I thought it was clever)  So I tried my very best to honor her wishes and make this a small affair, but things might have gotten out of control and before I knew it we were at 18 kids, plus adults and we were having a pool party now (we invited too many boys to make it a froo froo party)  I talked to her in advance and admitted my mistake.  I told her I tried my very best, but fortunately she has that many people that love her and want to celebrate that she is 7 and we have to do the right thing and celebrate.  I told her if at any moment she needed a break, her and I could crawl back into my room and take a quiet break away from everyone.  She hesitantly agreed.

So these were the party favors - no we were not serving pina coladas to minors.  They were filled candy - scouts honor!

 The pool

 The sweets

And my girl 5 minutes before the festivities began.  Does she look happy or excited to you?  Roger took her back to get her swim suit on and all of a sudden the face got really pale and she started to gag! Oh No!  Please No!  Roger talked her through it and she was able to control it.  She pulled it together, swam awhile with the 28 guests (I know, I went a little overboard) managed to even smile a few times. Her teeth were grinding to the beat of the Happy Birthday song.  She managed a few bites of cake and ice cream and then it was time for some Mickey Mouse therapy.  She did it, she made it through a birthday party without getting sick!  Hooray!

 And Hooray to me, mother of the year, who did not take a single picture of the actual party.  I know, I'm an idiot. What's really amazing, what makes this story priceless to me is that my girl is learning to express herself and learning to deal with things that make her anxious.  When everyone had left, Roger was feeding her and completely on her own, with her PODD on Tobii, she said "Today, bad, I don't like it"  Sorry friend, don't take offense if you were here.  It's not that she doesn't love you, she LOVES you!  It's just hard for her to be in the spot light.  Then later when I was putting her to bed we had this conversation:
Me: So did you have an ok kind of day?
J: Yes
Me: So did you like your birthday party just a little bit?
J: No
Me: Well, do you understand why we had to have this party for you?
J: Yes

She gets it.  She gets that so many people love her and want to be a part of celebrating her day with her.  She also knows now that she CAN do this.  Who knows, maybe next year she might even enjoy it a little.

This was just a cute shot of our cutie niece Isabella.  Love this little girl so much.

here we are, one day later, after all the guests had left and it was just us again, opening her gifts.

Early Birthday Celebration with the Fam

Yes!  It's birthday time!  This weekend Omi, Opi, Auntie Laura, Uncle Gary, Aunt Teresa and Dylan came to town to celebrate an early birthday with Juliana.  The El Paso crew arrived on Saturday and we met them for dinner at Aspen Creek.  I had to take a picture of her Tobii/PODD page because she was so excited to be with her Auntie Laura that she - All by herself - navigated through several pages to get to this one. She continued to tell Auntie Laura "Birthday, present, happy, party, new"  I love to hear her voice

 Then the next night we had cake and gifts.

 This was a clever gift from Dylan and Aunt Teresa.  She had to have Liv help her pull it out!

 How fun is this!  Hope she has as much fun spending that money!

 Cake time!

 And this might have been one of her favorite gifts.  It was actually Auntie Laura's bracelet which she gave to Juliana because she told her that the happy face reminds her of her happy smile.  Juliana has been wearing it to school every day with pride.