Myla turns 2!

Let's get the hard stuff out of the way first, maybe you should sit down...a routine ultrasound of Myla's kidney after the UTI drama unfortunately found a mass about half the size of her left kidney.  Given our family history of cancer and the fact that I'm a pediatric heme/onc nurse the word "mass" was very scary for all of us to hear.  Through a series of multiple conversations with multiple people we decided to have Myla undergo an MRI (under anesthesia) to make sure the mass wasn't cancerous.  THANKFULLY, the MRI results showed that the mass is made up of multiple fluid filled cyst-like things.  Our plan is to continue the antibiotics she was already on (3 times a day:() for a month and do a repeat ultrasound to make sure that the mass has shrunk as well as a VCUG to look at the anatomy of her kidney area to see why this all happened in the first place.  Despite the fact that we are so grateful that it was not cancer, this journey has been a difficult one and has given me a glimpse (albeit very small) into what some of my patient's families go through regularly.  Watching your child be sick is hard, sometimes unbearably hard.  We're not 100% comfortable with where she currently is because there is still something wrong and we haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet but we are grateful that it doesn't look like the worst.  Myla is not 100% sure either...she is not quite back to her "normal" self.  She wants to be held a lot more and always wants to have her nuk and her favorite stuff animal Lilly.

Amidst all of the Doctor's appointments our sweet Myla Bea had her 2nd birthday.  Since we've started a tradition of Avery getting her nails done on her birthdays we thought we should offer it to Myla too.  She had been telling me for 3 days that she wanted pink nail polish so into the nail salon we went!  Much to my dismay Myla changed her mind the second we got there and panicked when the nail lady walked towards her.  She ended up walking to Starbucks with Daddy for some chocolate milk while I finished getting my nails done (I wasn't going to let a 2 year old ruin my relaxation;).  We visited Aves at school for her Thanksgiving feast and just hung out the rest of the day until Myla's party.

We did a "Brown bear brown bear" theme after Myla's favorite book that she makes us read to her CONSTANTLY! It was a lot of fun preparing for the party and both Andy and I were shocked at how much fun she had.  At the beginning she was literally running laps around the house, bouncing with excitement; a memory that both Andy and I said we hope we never forget.  You could tell that she knew this day was special and it was special because of her.  We had lots of yummy soup and tons of delicious bread as about 35 people joined us to celebrate Millie.  It was so much fun!!!

The room!  My friend Brittany came over the night before the party to help me decorate:)

All the food was themed with the book.

Super cute cupcake toppers.

Our sweet birthday girl!  The outfit was made by a co-worker and it was ADORABLE!  (if you're in need of one for yourself/your child let me know and I can get you her info:)

Trying to get pictures of multiple 2 year olds is nearly impossible...Here is Sophia and Millie!

Not so sure about everyone singing to her

Really not so sure...

Then happy to have family by her side:)

And she was definitely excited to jump into eating cupcakes.

We decided to let her open a couple of presents but once she opened one she wanted to keep going.  Her exclamations included shouting, "what?" and "Elmo!"

We are stocked up on tattooes for a while and super excited about it!

She got a life size Elmo from Grammy and Grandpa Rog which she was really excited about.  It took a while for her to let us take Elmo out of the box and now that he is we're trying to get her to warm up to him, she'll definitely come around soon:)

A big thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our little Myla Bea, it was a very special day.  We also covet your prayers as we continue on this journey to full health.

On my last side note for this post, we got some very sad news last week...our cousin Caitlin went home to be with the Lord.  She had been sick on and off for a little while and her body could not fight anymore.  We wish that we could be with our family in Oregon to share stories and mourn her loss but we take hope in the fact that she is dancing in Heaven with Jesus.  We miss you Ms. Caitlin Marie and we love you Aunt Julie, Uncle Don, and Courtney.