Happy 1st Birthday Elle Francesca Hariton !!!!!

It is hard to believe that this precious, adorable, cuddly little girl has been here a whole year. I can't say that it feels like it flew by. Why? Because I made sure to stop and enjoy every single day and moment with Elle. I didn't want to focus more on anticipating the new things that she would be doing. Instead, I focused on what she was currently doing. If you know our family, you know that the past year has definitely had it's ups and downs health wise, but I couldn't even imagine our lives without Elle. At one year, Elle is still trying to learn to sit. It's a lot of work for her brain and body to coordinate this task, but Miss. Jenny, her physical therapist, thinks she'll get it. Elle just had a hearing test and passed with flying colors. She apparently has "selective hearing" something she got from both her mommy & daddy :-) She is able to localize sounds very well. She is responding better to our voices when we call her now and usually with a huge Elle smile. Her favorite fruit is raspberries! The blowing kind! Yep, our little girl has figured out how to blow raspberries. Her favorite edible fruit is Kiwi.

We celebrated Elle's birthday yesterday with friends & family. We are so fortunate to have such a great group of people surrounding us. Everyone came over for her party. Grandma Jean came in from Naples, Grammy Sue was here, Aunt Carolyn flew in for 5 hours from Boca Raton, "Aunt" JuJu (Julie),"Aunt" Michele, Ann & Savannah, Miss Jenny & Alex, Josh & Wendy, "Aunt" Shannon, Marguerite & CJ, Jill and Danielle and of course, mommy & daddy! Elle received so many presents and they are all perfect to help her continue to improve her hand/eye coordination & stimulate her brain. She even got a pony!!!! Thank you Danielle :-)

Here are some photos of the day. Thanks to "Aunt" Shannon for taking all of them as I was too busy trying to keep little hands out of cake icing :-) And for those of you wondering, yes, she is wearing a tutu! I only have 1 little girl and she will only turn 1 once :-)

A message from Elle:

Thank you all for coming to share my special day with me. I am so happy to have each of you in my life. A baby couldn't ask for more loving, special, kind and generous friends! I love you all!

-elle