It is hard to believe that we've reached the end of July! Time really does fly sometimes! Mia continues to do very well. She moved on from saying "mamamamamama" to "babababababa"...Daddy is ready for her to say "dadadadadada". We keep doing the therapy and it is making a huge difference...we notice her getting stronger and using her left hand/arm a bit more. Tummy time is a lot harder now because she's so good at rolling over to her back. I don't know why she doesn't want to roll onto her tummy! :) Thank you for continuing to pray for our little girl, God continues to be so merciful and good to her!

Mia continues to do really well. We went to the pediatrician today and she is now 13 pounds 11 ounces. And she's now 27 inches...she just keeps stretching like a weed! People would give to be tall and skinny and well, that's what she is. :) We are still up at least one time during the night for a feeding, we joke that maybe by the time she goes to college she'll sleep through the night. It's ok though because we know the feeding thing is important, so we don't mind.

Momma...hey what about Daddy?!?!

Mia has been talking quite a bit recently...her favorite word seems to be Momma! We've tried getting it on video for awhile, but every time we get the camera out she stops talking...as soon as we put it away she's talking again...that's why this time we finally got it on video without her knowing. :) Enjoy!!

Why is it always such a long day when we go to LA? Probably because we had to get up bright and early to make it to our 9am appointment...and you never know what you'll get for traffic. Needless to say we did make it after one stop because Mia got so angry in her car seat that she made herself throw up. :( Thankfully Mommy had an extra outfit along...I guess this is why you always pack so much and hope you never need to use it!

We got to the helmet place first and they LOVED Mia's painted helmet. They thought it was so adorable! They took measurements of her head and it is a wee bit better, please pray that as she continues to grow her head will shape up normally...before the sutures fuse together again permanently. Mostly we are concerned about the front of her head, so please pray for that to end up normal.

After the helmet place we went to UCLA to see Mia's cardiologist. He had mentioned earlier that heart surgery would probably be next, but after seeing her and discussing with his colleagues they think waiting a bit would be better. Her PA Band is still doing the job it needs to do and all of her stats were great so his thought would be to give her another 9 months to a year to grow and then think about the heart surgery. Of course that could change if her stats started to decline, but as long as she was healthy they would like to wait. And that's ok with us too because we want to give her some time to do baby things...like learn to crawl and walk, etc.

Just to make sure the PA Band and her heart looked ok we went upstairs and she had an Echocardiogram done. And the gal who did it said everything looked real nice.

After that we went to visit some friends who's son is in the hospital here...you may remember us mentioning for you to pray for baby Gabriel awhile back. Anyway, we saw him and his parents, they are doing really well...real close to going home. Gabriel is doing much better, but still needs lots of prayer, so if you think of him, pray for him also. Pray that he would regain eating completely by himself and that he would continue to show signs of cognitive development. They are so thankful for the prayers, like us.

We also got Mia's EEG results from two weeks ago. The results said that their were some abnormalities, but no seizures at the moment. At first it made us real sad because we wanted it to say that everything was normal, we've seen how much God has healed her already, but then we agreed that God has taken care of Mia so well and that He'll continue to do so if it is in His will and we know that it doesn't matter what the results say...God is so much bigger than that, and we continue to rest in that hope and that peace.

So what is next for Mia...we are going to talk to her intestinal surgeon and see when he would like to do her next two surgeries because it looks like those will come before the heart. Pray that we would have patience to wait upon God's timing for this and pray that the doctors would have wisdom for scheduling and knowing what the right time is also.

Thank you so much for praying for Mia, it is such a blessing to us.

Isn't that the cutest smile ever??? You are probably wondering, where's your helmet Mia? Sometimes Mommy gives her a break because it can get pretty hot in Bakersfield...then we do tummy time.

She Sits!

Mia is doing so great, we continue to be in awe at God's healing power over her. The doctors told us that she would not sit or stand or walk...and yet, here she is 2 months later sitting! Of course she can't do it for long periods of time and I have to put her in the position, but still...she sits! Thank you God for continuing to heal our baby and letting her be a testimony to You!!

Mia also got weighed today and she is now 13 pounds 9 ounces...she's been feeding much better and we continue to be encouraged by that.

Yesterday, Mia's cousin Andrew came to visit. Here's a picture of him with Grandma Cheri and Mia. Mia was very much intrigued by Andrew...she just kept watching every move he'd make!

On Friday, our dear friend Sam, an artist, painted Mia's helmet for her. It turned out so cute! There is a frog, of course...and a turtle, a snail, some dragonflies...and a butterfly...and a very cute lady bug. Mia loves it...and now no one should forget her name! Thank you Sam!!!

Dearest Mia,

Mommy and Daddy love you all of it! Today you were trying to get up on your knees from your tummy. You were pushing with your arms. It means that you are getting stronger and that before we know it, you'll probably be crawling. We can't wait! Mommy also put you in a sitting position and you were able to stay there without her holding on until the count of 5! That was really really great. You are doing real well sweetheart!

Love always and forever,
Mommy and Daddy

Today Mia got weighed again and she is now 13 pounds 7 ounces. Thank you for praying for her weight gain. It is a slow battle, but she is definitely getting there. Her helmet continues to have shifting issues, so pray that we'll resolve those with our next visit...next week Friday. Otherwise she is doing really great...we do therapy a lot and it is building up strength...her left side is still weaker than her right, but we continue to work on that.

Mama, I know that I was born at UCLA, but I really like USC...is that OK?

Maybe I can cheer for both teams?

You see, these bears are my friends...

Mia...what are you doing to your friend???

Hi everyone, I'm doing real good...Mommy and Daddy say so. I keep going to my therapy and I keep getting stronger. Thank you for praying for me...I'm working on getting bigger...just real slowly...tell my Mommy not to worry...God is in control, He'll help me get big and strong!

Happy 9 Months Mia!

Today Mia is exactly 3/4 of a year...hard to believe. Her helmet seems to be fitting her better for the most part...it still sometimes slides, but it is less frequent. Hopefully as her head shape becomes more normal the helmet will fit better. She doesn't mind wearing it, which is so nice...we were worried she wouldn't tolerate it.

She got weighed again today and she is back to 13 pounds 3 ounces, so we are upping the calories in her formula. Pray that she will tolerate it and that this will help her to gain weight again.

Today we went to feeding therapy. Mia is doing really well with taking a bottle, but she has a hard time with solids when I feed her. So we went to feeding therapy and the therapist gave me some pointers. It was encouraging to me because she told me I was doing a lot of things right and that Mia just needs time to get there developmentally. So it was really helpful.

On a different note, the night after we came home from LA, Mia's helmet was doing the same stuff as before, so tomorrow I am taking her back to LA to get her helmet refitted...so please pray that whatever they do it would work, we really want her to be able to wear it without it turning into her facing and leaving red marks.

On a positive note, the geneticists called me today and told me that Mia's latest genetics study came back normal. So now she has had a total of 4 genetic tests run on her and they are all normal. So praise God for that! It is He that knit her in my womb...that's why she is as she is. :)

LA

Today we went to LA for an EEG (where they stick the electrodes on her head and measure brain activity) and to adjust her helmet. Driving back into Bakersfield our car said 113 degrees, it was so nice in LA...we don't usually like LA, but we were missing the cool weather when we drove back in to Bako-land...they don't call it Bako for nothing. :)

This morning before we left we weighed Mia and she's 13 pounds 5 ounces! Praise the Lord! Every ounce counts!

So we arrived in LA around 11 for her EEG and they told us, "we need her to sleep through part of it so do you think you could keep her awake for one of her naps so she is real tired when she's here..." Obviously they've never had kids...it's near impossible to keep her awake, especially in the car, when she's tired! Thankfully though she was ready for another nap at 11 when we got there so she went to sleep pretty quickly during the EEG. In fact she was asleep for most of the EEG, at one point they flashed strobe lights in her face (when she was sleeping) and it didn't phase her a bit. At the end we asked for the results, but they wouldn't tell us a thing...they said the doctor would call us in a week or so...we'll just be patient until then.

After that we went over to the helmet place and they made a few adjustments and told us that she needs to wear it all day now for two weeks...and then we'll be back in two weeks for them to look at her again. When we got home though her helmet was doing some of the same stuff so pray that we'll sort through it!

Can You Say Roll Over?

Mia has been doing so well at therapy...check out her progress! Her arms are definitely getting stronger, thanks for praying...can't wait until she crawls!

Fun Video

We had a blast at Greg and Joy's 4th of July BBQ!
Here is a small taste for you to enjoy.
PS. I love Lisa and Tony's dialog in the background

From our family to yours...Happy 4th of July!

Hey everyone, check out me in my helmet!! That's my Grandma Cheri holding me. I like it when she talks to me, I like it when anyone talks to me. Grandma Cheri says I look like I'm ready to go riding a bike, what do you think Daddy? You want to take me for a bike ride? Grandma Cheri also calls me her long grasshopper because I'm so long...not because I look like a grasshopper. :)

Today Mia had her first work session with her "teacher", Miss Carmen. She came over and worked with Mia on rolling and sitting and standing. And then the fun stuff happened. They sang songs, touched different textures, played with bubbles...Mia loved the bubbles, she was so entranced with them. And then they colored! Mia colored her first picture for Daddy today. Miss Carmen also teaches sign language at the same time, so that was real neat!

We also went to the pediatrician today and Mia is still 13 pounds 3 ounces, but she's now 26 inches. She was not quite 17 inches when she was born, so she is now 9 more inches which is great. We talked about trying her on a different formula to see if she might like that better than what she is getting, so we'll go ahead and try that in the next few days. Overall she thought she looked great.

Mia also started wearing her helmet today. You are supposed to ease them into wearing it, so she'll wear it for an hour a couple of times today and then we'll gradually increase. She didn't seem to mind it too much, but pray that we'll get the fit worked out because it doesn't seem quite right yet...we are going to see the helmet people next week Tuesday when we go to LA.

Here are some pictures of me in my bumbo chair. Mommy is always taking pictures of me...I like the flash, it's neat. I now have two toofers and mommy got real close to take this picture of my toofers...you might have to zoom in to see them because they are just barely above. My fingers really like the way they feel so I'm always sticking my fingers in my mouth now.