Last week

A few pictures from the last week. We got Mikayla's wheelchair on Thursday. It is so tiny - the top comes just above my knee. She is still not sure about it at all. Getting a little better every day. When she does push on the wheels and make it move, she gets the biggest smile on her face then looks at both Mike and I to see if we were looking. This is a BIG adjustment for all of us, including Mike and me. To be honest, I have had an extremely hard time with this. As parents we want to protect our children from the world. I know that people in this world are unsure of things that are different so they sometimes act in ways that hurt people who are different. That will be a VERY hard thing for me to deal with. Someone told me that Mikayla is going to have great strength - more than we can ever imagine having. I just want her to have a truly HAPPY life. I want her to NEVER wonder if she is loved. I want her to never wonder why she is on this earth- I want to teach her from a very young age that God has a purpose for her life - a very special purpose. Pastor Dan said today that the very thing we feel is our strongest weakness is the very thing that makes us perfect for God's use. I feel in the deepest part of my heart that Mikayla is going to touch and change the lives around her because of the miracle that she is... the miracle that God performed on her. I know that before she was ever born - lives were touched around her. I have learned so much and gained so much in the last 2 years from carrying her and being her mother. I am so thankful that God picked me to be Mikayla's mommy. There are hard days and more to come, I am sure, but I am so thankful that God gave me this precious angel of His.
On a less serious note... here are Mikayla playing on the floor with the animals close by.

The other night Mike put Mikayla in the clothes basket(it was clean) and pushed her around the house. She put a pair of his shorts over her head in the picture above. She was laughing so hard and had a blast. I took video but for some reason - i think it is my computer- I cannot load videos on here.
I had to put these pictures on here because they crack me up. This is Duke's new buddy. This dog comes to the front door and waits for Duke to come outside. Normally, Duke is a good boy and stays in the yard but since this little guy has come around - he has been running off. Two days last week they were gone for close to an hour. As you can see they are quite the odd duo.

Here is Mikayla in her chair. This is just a temp chair. We go to the wheelchair clinic at Vandy in a couple of weeks. Then she gets measured for the real one. The real chair will have a different back on it that will be better for the curve in her spine.
Duke is not sure what to think about this thing... he is going to have to learn to get out of her way.
Here is Mikayla helping Daddy cut the grass on Saturday. She really did have fun riding.

Look what a big girl I am

Mikayla is getting to be a big girl. She has started to drink out of a sippy cup with a straw. The straw came into play on vacation but the cup we got was so tall that it was hard for her to drink it in her highchair, until I realized she can tilt it up and it doesn't spill. She does SOOOO much better drinking out of this cup than a regular sippy cup. She just drinks and drinks. She did so well on our transition from formula to whole milk... it was like a dream. She drinks more now than when she was on the bottle. Here are some pictures from this morning. Sometimes she lets it dribble out of her mouth and she thinks it is funny. Also, last night she started blowing bubbles in her milk - not realizing it though(thank goodness). Mike was very proud of his little girl for this trick!!!

We went to the Spina Bifida Clinic yesterday(there for 4 hours). All good news. She continues to put on weight and get taller. She, of course, is still small but that is ok. That is the way God made her. One of the doctors commented to us about looking into growth hormones but we don't want to go that way. We figure that God made Mikayla small for a reason. If we give her those hormones it is as if we are saying that his creation is not good enough for us(altering his plan). I am small and for me to continue to carry her around - it is for sure better that she is smaller. She is scooting herself around on the hard floor and the carpet now and for that it has to be easier with her being small. There are also so many bad side effects to those we don't even want to chance it. The one bad thing about her being so small is that her car seat still has to face the back seat. We still have about 6 pounds for that to change. We(with her Physical Therapist at Clinic) have decided to start the process of getting her into her first wheelchair. These things are so tiny- the wheels are only 12 inches. They sit very low to the ground for ease in moving from the floor to the chair. I have totally come into a peace about her using the equipment. When I first started REALLY looking at the equipment - I had a really hard time adjusting to it. Reality was smack in my face and I did not want to have to deal with it. But - in the last couple of weeks God has really given me a peace about it and now I have found excitement in her being mobile. I cannot wait to see how Mikayla reacts to the chair. With her scooting around on the floor that is her showing us that she wants to be mobile and so we are going to make that possible for her. Within the next couple of weeks, we will be getting a loner chair to give it a try so I will put some pics on here then. The process of actually getting her chair takes about 3 months. That is crazy. We also are looking at getting her a mobile stander. That is a piece of equipment where she can stand and wheel herself around- she will be able to see eye to eye with other kids her age. This is a really exciting time for us. Please keep us in your prayers - this will be an adjustment period for us. We love you all.

Juice boxes and fruit snacks

Had to put these pictures on here. Mikayla drank out of a juice box for the first time today. She looked like such a big girl - and did such a great job not squeezing the juice out of the straw to make a mess. I think Mike and I made a bigger mess than she did. We also gave her fruit snacks today for the first time. She had so much fun rolling them around on her highchair tray . We have discovered that she has 3 teeth coming through on top - the two front and one of her eye teeth. She has been such a trooper. Poor thing - I feel so bad for her I know she has to be in pain!!


Had to put a picture of Mikayla and our friend Sam on here. We went to dinner with Sam and his mom, Christy, tonight. Sam was showing Mikayla how to dance. When Sam would stop dancing Mikayla would look at Christy as if to say"what is he doing". It was so cute.

Fourth of July

Had to do a comparison of this year to last year at the same time. My how our little one has changed!! We had a good holiday. We went to a party at Mike's boss house during the afternoon and then watched the fireworks at White House Park with our friends from church. The fireworks were WAY after Mikayla's bedtime so she became fussy about halfway through. She did very well though a little scared. She would not let anyone hold her except Mommy. There were a couple of times she jumped and held on for her dear life. Again, she did very well. She fell asleep before we even got out of the park.