Precious Moments: Micah Observations

Several people have asked over the last several months how Micah is doing with having one hand and one arm.  Mostly I just say it doesn't seem to bother him.  Lately he's been verbalizing some of his observations.

Micah is almost always the center of attention for a couple minutes at the park whenever we go if there are other children around.  Children are curious and Micah is usually pretty good about letting them touch his arm once and then is ready to move on.  I've been trying to encourage him, when kids do come up and start completely focusing on his arm, to say, "Hi, my name is Micah" so they realize he's a person first, not just that he has an anomaly.  (So far he hasn't caught on to that routine yet, but we're still working on it.)  If there is a child that continually comes up and touches and asks him about it, he has started saying rather emphatically, "Leave me alone!"  That, honestly, is the most negative reaction we have observed from him around others.

(I say that's the most negative he is around others because at home he likes to try pull the "I can't!" whiny routine when he doesn't want to do something we've asked him to do.  If we see he's honestly trying, we'll help him, but more often then not he's just not wanting to try so then we are firm about him trying on his own first if it's something we know he can do.)

A couple weeks ago the boys were talking about the baby in mommy's tummy, and what the baby will look like.  Micah's observation was, "Maybe baby will have one arm just like me!"  He seemed a little disappointed when I told him we thought the baby probably had two hands.

One of my favorite Micah-isms that has come out in several different situations at church, story hour and at home, is his phrase "Don't forget my arm!"  Several times over the last couple weeks we've had to trace hands for one project or another and he has been asked if he just wanted to trace his hand twice, but every time he has been insistent on tracing his hand and his arm. 

This morning was the most astonishing observation I've heard out of him yet.  Yesterday the boys went to play at Grandma's house and they were allowed to watch a couple minutes of Winnie the Pooh.  At breakfast this morning Micah piped up with this:  "Mommy, Winnie the Pooh has two arms and Piglet has two arms.  That's just kinda like me with one hand and one arm."

So that's how our Micah is doing with having one hand and one arm.  We are loving watching him grow, develop and become confident in who he is and his abilities.