Un-birthday Celebrations and Simple Joys

Life goes on and the beat just gets better every day. And this past weekend was like the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae.

Our grandddaughter Alyssa and her husband Aaron were in town from Camp Pendleton as Aaron had almost 3 weeks leave from the Marines. With them was the ever-popular almost 2-year old Kylie, our great-granddaughter. Son Craig and his wife Gigi decided that since Kylie's first birthday happened in CA as will her second.
And since none of us can get down there to celebrate with her in October, an "un-birthday" party was held at our son's home nearby. It didn't matter to Kylie that we called it an "un-birthday" affair -- presents, ice cream and cupcakes work any day of the year when you're not yet 2!

Being the proud mom, grandma, and great-grandma, I can't resist sharing pictures with you:

Kylie, mommy and daddy

I love it when you give me bling!

I am supposed to smear this on my face, right?

The best news in all this was that Alyssa and Aaron learned this week that the reason for Kylie's slow growth rate (she still wears 6-9 months) is a malformed pituitary gland which isn't producing sufficient growth hormone. It is hoped that over the next four months, before Aaron's discharge, they will be able to give her four hormone injections which will speed her growth and hopefully jump start her pituitary. They are also hopeful that she won't need more than four injections as they are expensive, but fully coverred under his military insurance. Once Aaron is discharged in February, he doesn't know where he'll be working or what kind of insurance he'll have. We're praying about this part of it.

Bottom line, we had a great weekend! Having family around makes all your aches and pains disappear for awhile. The joy that Kylie has within her for everyone around her is so contagious that we left feeling really, really good!