Hammond Family

Moving forward, one day at a time.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Emily's Birthday


We were able to start some nice family traditions for Emily's birthday yesterday. I made breakfast tacos in the morning, because Emily loved scrambled eggs and salsa, but after making them I decided next year I'll honor her better by buying them at Taco Cabana! The day went as well as it could be, I think. It was hard, but it was nice to remember all of the fun times we had with Emily. I looked through all of our old pictures and we watched a video from when Emily was one. We showed Lily how much Emily liked to roll. Lily liked it too! I bought a Caldacott award winning picture book for Lily, because now Emily can enjoy the pictures with us. (Emily was blind-she could see some colors but not pictures).
It looks like Lily is being so attentive, but really this is the only page she looked at before she decided she was done!

We decided to release balloons for Emily's birthday, and then I remembered that for Christmas I had given Emily the book "Emily's Balloon." I had searched and searched for a book with Emily's name that I could give her for Christmas, and this one was perfect because it was about a little girl who had a yellow balloon, and yellow is the one color we knew Em could see. I read Emily the book almost every night from Christmas until she passed away in January. So we read it last night before we released the yellow balloons.

Lily was kind of tired, and didn't really get the balloon release until the last one, which she actually watched float all the way up. This one was the 2nd, and she didn't get it yet!

We gave Lily a ride for the first time in Emily's wheelchair. She wasn't sure what to think of it!



Daddy showing Lily how to roll. She thought it was quite fun!

This has nothing to do with Em's birthday, but it was very funny. Lily had pulled this car out from it's parking spot and was hitting it, so I put her in it to give her a ride. Any time that I would stop moving she would do this fake cry. It made me laugh, and I had to get a picture!

We went to a friend's house over the weekend for dinner and Lily had strawberries and avacado in a little chewer thing that she can gum to death. She was quite content and would cry any time she was out of strawberries. She later had a bath! And amazingly, the dress did get clean.

8 comments:

Hoenes Family said...

What a great memorial day you had for Emily. I loved the story about "Emily's Balloon", that was very touching.

Tif said...

I'm glad that day went ok, Cami. I was thinking about you all day, and today too. I love the way you're involving Lily in the remembering of Emily, and helping her get to know her sister that way.

Beckie said...

I love how you honored Emily. Everything sounded so wonderful. What a great way to share Emily with Lily.

Jenny H said...

That sounds beautiful. I love the story and balloons. The picture of Lily in Em's chair is adorable.
Hope you had a good birthday too...:)

Janalyn said...

Happy Birthday Emily!

Tyler & Michelle said...

What great traditions to start!!

Alisha said...

Very touching, I couldn't keep the teers back. I'm sure Emily just loved it!

Aleena said...

What a great post! I love the things you did to honor Emily on her birthday and I love that you are giving Lily connections to her sister. You are awesome!