Last Weekend

I turned 29 last week Friday. To celebrate Mark and the kids gave me a mini surprise party. I went out to run an errand and when I got home Mark, Charlie, Ruby, Emily (our babysitter) and my parents were at our house to surprise me with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Charlie had colored me a card and everyone, including Tiger, was wearing birthday hats. It was a sweet little surprise.

Ruby Giggles

I captured some giggles from Ruby on Monday night. She has been fabulous since starting school; I am thrilled with the transition so far.

Here is my little sweetheart...

A Quick Review

Ruby had a pretty good day at school. She rode on the bus with no fussing. About an hour into her school day she was already tired from all the new stimulation, but she stayed fairly calm most of the morning. Her teachers were fabulous and spent time rocking her, singing to her and cuddling her so she got plenty of attention. They are really trying to make her transition smooth and let her get used to things before they push her too hard. I think this is a great place for her and I felt very good about my morning at school with her. I think she won't get as tired as she gets used to things. Overall, I was really happy with how things went.

I forgot to take pictures at school, but here are a few shots of her this morning. (Check out Charlie's cheesy smile in the second to last picture; whenever we say "smile" this is what he does :)

School Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a big day at the TenHaken house because Ruby starts school at the Ottawa Area Center. This is a great school for kids with extensive special needs. At school Ruby will be getting physical, occupational, hippo, water and music therapy. The teachers and aides seem really great and they know what they are getting into with Ruby because they work with kids like her all the time. Although this will be a tough transition, I think ultimately it will be a great thing for Ruby. We are hoping she learns how to be calm and content, even when someone isn't cuddling or ticking her :)
I am also looking forward to having some alone time with Charlie before baby #3 makes her debut!

The bus is picking her up at 8:35 in front of our house. I am going to put her on the bus and then drive over to her school where I will spend the first day with her. She will be going to school three half days and two full days (if all goes well).

We are hoping that Ruby does well tomorrow with all the new people, sights, smells, sounds...etc. We are also praying we do okay when our baby drives off in a big school bus. I will keep you posted how the first day went!

A New Van

We got a new wheelchair van! We have been looking for several months because we knew when Ruby started school we would sometimes need to pick her up with her wheelchair. The wheelchair is really heavy and with me being pregnant it is hard to just throw it in the back of the van. Plus, we knew we wouldn't start using the wheelchair on a regular basis until we had a van that could accommodate it. We didn't have much luck looking just around West Michigan because there just aren't that many vans to choose from. The ones that dealers have are usually very expensive because the demand for them isn't as high. So, we turned to ebay and Monday night we found a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country for a good price and we went for it. Unfortunately it is in Florida, but the dealer is having it shipped to us, hopefully next week.

I was kind of dreading getting a van for Ruby because it was expensive and I like the van we have. Also, looking at wheelchair vans was hard because it reminded me of Ruby's needs. I don't like the idea of having to push my daughter up a ramp to get her in the car. I am not looking forward to putting my other two kids way in the backseat of the van, away from me, because of Ruby's wheelchair. I always try to take one day at a time, but this forced me to look into the future with her and that is tough to do.

But, now that the job is done, I feel good about it...maybe even a little excited about the new ride. We have a van (or will have it soon) and she starts school on Monday; we are making the next step with her and we are okay. Once again, God has given us the grace and peace we needed to walk the path He has laid out for us.

Keep praying for that peace though because we are going to need a lot of it on Monday morning when we put our little girl and her hot pink wheelchair on a big yellow school bus.

We did use some money from Ruby's medical fund to pay for the van. This fund holds the money that was raised for Ruby last year at the two fundraisers friends and family held for us. So, thank you to those of you that gave to that fund! Your generosity has once again allowed us to meet Ruby's needs. We could not have taken this next step without you!

The New TenHaken Wheels....

Too Harsh?

I think I was a little too cocky in my last post about winning the food battle with Charlie because the war is far from over :) We had a pretty good weekend with him; he ate several bites of new things without too much of a fight...until last night.

At dinner last night, all Charlie had to do was eat one bean OR one bite of mashed potatoes--not too big of a deal, right? WRONG! He refused to eat anything. From 5:45-6:30 we went back and forth with him from time out to the table with no luck. Finally, we cleaned up dinner and made him sit at the table alone with his plate. We told him that as soon as he ate one bite he could have other food, then we bribed him with ice cream, eventually we said he could at least get out of his chair as long as he took that one bite. He still refused, so we walked away and ignored him. He sat in his chair by the table until 8pm when I unbuckled him and laid him down in his crib and put him to bed. He didn't eat anything for supper.

I felt horrible for sending him to bed without supper. I imagined him crying and tossing and turning with hunger pains; I thought I might have to make him eat mashed potatoes at 3am when he got too hungry to sleep. But, going to bed without eating didn't seem to phase him. He slept through the night, woke up at his normal time and ate a waffle for breakfast. I am scarred from last night but I think he forgot about the whole thing :)

Tonight, my stubborn little man might get peanut butter and jelly for dinner. I have to rest up for a few days before we tackle the food issue again :)

We Won This One

Charlie is somewhat of a picky eater. He loves to eat, as long as he can eat what he wants (mainly peanut butter and jelly, fruit, yogurt, cheese and waffles). Because meal time is often a battle with Ruby, we have chosen not to fight the food battle with Charlie. Usually we are just excited to get both kids fed so that we can sit down for a quick 15 minutes and eat ourselves.

Lately though, I have gotten very sick of having to make three different meals (one for Ruby, one for Charlie and one for us). So, last night we decided Charlie was going to eat what we were eating. I made stromboli and even though he likes pizza, he did NOT want to eat the stromboli. We put our foot (feet? :) down and fought him on this. He could either sit in his chair and eat his supper, or sit in a time out chair in Ruby's room. He went back and forth between time out and his booster chair, but, after an hour of time outs and tears, Charlie ate his stromboli!!

We will keep fighting this and hopefully soon he will realize he has to eat what we are eating.

Score one for the parents :)