With my baby biscuits over the weekend. She wrinkles her nose now when she smiles - so cute! I love how the light is shining right on her in this picture...she is an angel. :)

PBS Kids Character with ABS

We were out having dinner a week or so ago and Kyla had started to get fussy so my Husband took her over to the fish tank that was in the restaurant to check out the fish for a bit. There were two little girls also looking at the fish and they turned around and saw Kyla's arm and asked what had happened and the little girl who was 3 says "she looks like SpongeBob's friend." My Husband was just like "oh really?," not having any idea who the girl was talking about and just made conversation with the girl and explained to them what had happened. Of course they were curious about it for like 2 minutes and then all focus was on the fish. :)

After the little girl said this, I was curious who she was talking about and had remembered reading something about a cartoon character who had ABS...I couldn't remember where I had seen this, but I finally found one that does - his name is Andy and he is on Maya & Miguel which is on PBS Kids. Andy has an arm that looks exactly like Kyla's, but it is his right arm rather than left.

It's pretty cute, a lot of kids have gone to the website and asked "Andy" about his arm and how he plays sports without his other hand, how he handles people looking differently at him, etc. I've never seen this show, but definately it will be something we'll eventually show to Kyla. Awesome awareness for ABS!

Links:

http://pbskids.org/mayaandmiguel/english/friends/andy/flash.html
http://pbskids.org/mayaandmiguel/english/friends/andy/faq/index.html

Info taken from Wikipedia about the Character:

Andy Arlington: A 10-year-old English-American boy who was born with only one arm and is Miguel's friend. Often seen in the background with Miguel and Theo, he likes to play soccer, basketball, and baseball. Andy comes from a wealthy family. He does not consider himself to be better than anyone else, though. He has a crush on a Mexican girl named Esperanza, but was nervous about speaking with her as he cannot speak Spanish well and she is not fluent in English. Besides meeting and being nervous about meeting Esperanza, it is not known whether or not they are still together. Voiced by Jeannie Elias.

Practice

Using her prosthetic to carry her bouncy ball around the living room.

Me & My One-Year Old!

"The most precious and valuable jewels you'll ever have around your neck are the arms of your child."

I loved this saying, because Kyla has just started wrapping her arms around us when she gets picked up and it is the best feeling in the world. No way to describe it. She feels too good to hold.

Here is a photo of her and I that was snapped last night. She is a big one years old now and so silly! I was tossing her up and down and getting her to laugh for the pictures. :)

Chosen One

But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:13

Biblical Reasonings

Just last week I went on the internet to the online Bible to look up disability and try to find biblical stories or verses that would be good to lean on in the future. I tried searching disability, disabled, etc. and found nothing. I know the Bible is full of stories about people who were healed by God and so I found it odd that my search returned nothing. I was at work so decided just to look through the reference pages in my Bible later on. Last night a lady I met in Seattle who has a daughter that is just like Kyla (has a full arm amputation, left arm, below the elbow) posted her daughter's story and this is what she said:



God reminded me of all the people Jesus healed in the Bible; they all had mothers who had probably cried out to God for the healing of their children. Their imperfections brought God glory when they were healed.

“As he went along, he saw a blind man from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” John 9:1-3



I love this - this tells me that Kyla's arm is not because Kyla deserved this, or that her arm was a result of something bad her Father or I did, but that she was created that way so that God could display his work through her life. Very cool!

Another great verse she shared was Psalm 139.

To My Baby

Kyla Rae,

You are 10 months now and such a busy body. You are a handful and are into everything you shouldn't be. I could buy you a million "toys" and you would choose anything and everything that is not meant to be a toy to play with, or get into, or stick into your mouth. You are becoming Miss Independent and throw a fit everytime I change your diaper, change your clothes or feed you myself. You are growing up way too fast. I love you with all of my heart and could have done nothing better in my life than had you as my daughter.

On the days that are such a struggle and it seems nothing is going right for me, coming home to you is what I look forward the most because you are almost always the reason for my first real smile and first real laugh of the day.

Love you my sweet girl.

Mommy

This is fun to chew!





















Holding my hands for the first time! :)

First Fitting

We just returned this afternoon from Seattle after Kyla's first fitting appointment. Everything went great but there were a few little tweeks Lindsay (Children's Hospital Prosthetics) had to make to make things more comfortable for Kyla. Her poor little arm was turning purple and bright red, because the socket was so tight :( Lindsay is going to make a little more room for her arm and we will go back up in 3 weeks to get the finished prosthetic.

It was so strange seeing her with an arm. It was different, but good. I think she looks cute with it on. Here are some pics. She likes to chew on the long velcrow strap, but this will be cut shorter so that she won't just think it's a chew toy in the future.

We took Daddy to The Cheesecake Factory on Pike in Seattle for dinner for his first Father's Day. Such a beautiful restaurant and good food. I always try to plan something on our trips to the Hospital just to make sure that they are somewhat fun and not just another "task" to add to our list of things to do.

By the way - I had stated in earlier posts that each time we go to Children's I never see any sick kids or kids like Kyla. Today made me change that statement. We saw probably 5 or 6 kids that had cancer or something (walking around with bald heads and feeding tubes going down their nose or in wheelchairs, pale and bald heads). I can't even imagine having a child that was sick like that. Thank God our child's issue is so very mild in comparison.

Me & My Favorite Girl

At Emerald Downs, Saturday, June 5th, 2010.