Ruthie is Four!

Ruth has been talking about turning four years old for quite awhile.

She has been telling people for months that she's 3 but soon she'll be 4. So when the big day finally came, she was ready!

Ruth is terribly bright. She understand rules to games (whether she follows the rules is a different story), she can read many sight words, she recognizes most of the letters of the alphabet, can nearly write her name (sometimes the letters are backwards h t u R instead of R u t h; although she likes to forsake the "u" and insists she doesn't have a "u" in her name; unless Mema is the one to remind her of that letter). We are planning to join her in Caroline's homeschool Kindergarten class this fall. She's very excited to be in Kindergarten and do homework like all her big sisters.

Ruth has been receiving quite a bit of speech therapy this past year, fluctuating from 2-3 times per week. After she turned four we backed down to one time per week for a 45 minute session. I am her speech therapist the rest of the week and do my best to teach her what the therapist modeled for us. I'm certainly not nearly as fun as Miss Rachel, but I'm ok.

Birthday presents!

She was so excited about this doll that when she pulled back the wrapping paper she jumped up and ran to me and gave me the biggest hug. The icing on the cake is the  doll came with the name "Lili" which is what Ruth often calls things as her silly word. When I found this doll (she's supposed to look Asian but other than the black hair and brown eyes there's really no Asian features to the doll), I knew it was just right for our girl.

Ruthie is still very tiny for her age, not even on the Chinese growth chart at almost 24 pounds and 2 feet 10 inches tall. Her weight to height ratio is pretty good, the 17th percentile.

She enjoyed a fun day out with her daddy for her birthday (North Museum and Friendly's for lunch) but was very ready to come home and see mommy and her sisters.

Kisses for the best daddy in the world

There are still concerns from the doctors regarding her slow growth. We do know this is in part due to the form of Thalassemia she has. She takes a folic acid pill every day to support red blood cell production and a Vitamin D supplement to help with bone density. We have still not had to give her any blood transfusions for which we are grateful. She will go back to CHOP to see the Thalassemia specialist in June and we will see at that time what suggestions the doctor has to make or if we can continue on as we are now.

Her cleft lip and palate have both been repaired. At this point we don't foresee any surgeries for many years (potentially a lip/nose revision when she's a teenager IF she wants it). Her surgeon doesn't think she will need a bone graft in her gum line, but we do know there's a small possibility that after she starts losing teeth we will need to have that checked to make sure she doesn't need that repair. She will likely need orthodontics for quite awhile, but again, this will be years down the road when she starts losing baby teeth and growing adult teeth. We are aware that she also may have missing teeth or misshapen teeth that may require dental work. However, at this time, we are good to go and her biggest hurdle continues to be speech.

Ruth continues to bring our family so much joy. She is Caroline's best friend. She is sweet and snuggly but also loud and spicy. We cannot imagine our family without her as a part of it.

She is very ready to be a big sisters. She prays multiple times a day for her little sister in China and hopes that we will have good news to share soon.

She saw this deer cake sample at the grocery store and knew exactly what she wanted for her fourth birthday cake!

Ruthie Deer, we love you. These past two years have been incredible. We will soon reach the day when she's been a Hess girl longer than she hasn't. And what a day of rejoicing that will be!

Happy fourth birthday, Ruthie V.!

So sassy!