Five Years Old

Our Litle Fighting Tiger turned five years old yesterday.

I will post a picture blog soon with his birthdays, from day one to this year's, but I need to get all of the pics together first.

Tucker's actual birthday is such a blur to me, I was pretty much unconscious for most of it, due to the pre-eclampsia and the meds to fight the pre-eclampsia.

Two days later, I felt well enough to actually ask to see Tucker, and to roll over in my wheelchair to the NICU to see him.  It was scary and very surreal. It felt like an out of body experience, like there was no emotion attached because it didn't seem possible to really be there. 

That night I promised Tucker and God that if Tucker fought hard to stay with us, I would be the best mommy any little boy could ever want or need.  I had no idea what was ahead for him or us....I just knew that any baby who had such a crappy first few days of life deserved the best he could get from now on.

And I think through everything, Chris and I have kept our end of that deal :)

So for the last few weeks, I have been pretty emotional. We have had a lot going on, with Chris's brother getting married, and my best friend Jessica getting married in a few weeks. The idea that Tucker is able to be there for all of this makes me so happy.

He finished his first year of preschool, and he was not even the kid that missed the most days! 

We have started his ABA program, and just in the first few weeks have seen a huge difference.  Everyone in Chris's and my immediate families has been on board, and the ABA therapist is very impressed that everyone is so supportive. It will all get harder to stick to our guns as we expect more and more out of Tucker, but as time goes on, we hope to be able to do more and more with him, so it will all be worth the work and the hard transitions Tucker has to go through.

We are (as usual!) celebrating Tucker's birthday in a BIG way.  We rented out the local inflatable place for a party; Tucker has been there twice and loves it :)  About 15 kids and 45 adults are coming to Jump for 1 hour and a half, and then to enjoy pizza, sandwiches, and an ice cream cake.  We will have chips for Tucker, of course. 

It is a firetruck theme, so we sent out firetruck invites, he has a firetruck shirt, and we have firetruck shaped sugar cookies for party favors (and no, I didn't make them, I am not quite that talented).  He is also supposed to have a firetruck cake, but we aren't sure how that will work out!  (the firetruck I sent to Baskin Robbins is too heavy to sit on the cake....) It is still hard to tell if he likes presents or not, his face lights up at the word "presents" but I don't know that he will want to quit jumping to sit still and open stuff. So we'll see.

For his actual birthday, Chris and I both had to work. So I had the idea (which Gina says I stole from her!) to take Tucker to Build a Bear at the mall.  Chris and Tucker rode in the truck and met me at the mall after work, and Tucker was so excited. He kept saying "bear store", because Chris told him that is where he was going to pick out his present.  I had never been to the BAB store, but it is amazing. There are tons of animals to pick from, and you stuff it yourself, and then buy whatever accessories it needs, from clothes and hats, to cars and strollers!

Tucker went straight to the Camouflage bear, and never looked back! I wanted him to make sure he picked the right one, so I took my time showing him every single one, but he clung to the empty Camo bear for dear life:) I think Chris had a tear in his eye, lol, he was so proud!

So then, since we knew Tucker wouldn't be asking for his bear to have any clothes or accessories, we didn't mind spending a little extra so that his bear could have a customized sound.  There is a machine with about 20 sounds, you press the buttons to preview the sounds, then you pick which one you want.  So Tucker hit the Star Wars button, you know that theme song? It's loud, and you would all recognize it if you heard it.  Tucker really has no interest in Star Wars, but Chris loves all of the movies.  Tucker happened to be wearing his Yoda shirt that says "Judge me by my Size, Do you?" which of course Chris picked out for him.

So when I told the BAB consultant that Tucker didn't even like Star Wars, I don't think she believed me as he had on a Yoda shirt!  I showed Tucker all of the buttons, some roared, some played "Happy Birthday" and some said "I Love you," but again, Tucker stuck with his first choice.  He pressed that button about 3 more times, then we were sold.

Tucker picked out a heart for his bear, so that it would have a heartbeat when you hug the bear.  The next part was to stuff it and sew it up.  Tucker was NOT happy when the lady took his bear and shoved it on the metal filler part.  It really did look like the poor bear was being violated, as the metal rod was shoved in his back to fill him up with fluff.  Tucker helped push the pedal down so that the bear would quickly be full, then he watched as she sewed it up.  He was SO happy when she gave it back and he got to hold it :) 

Tucker is now the proud owner of a Camouflage bear that plays the Star Wars theme song and has a heartbeat.  He even has the birth certificate to prove it, which is a little odd if you ask me ;)

A trip to that mall is not complete without two rides on the carousel.  We knew that the carousel closes early on weeknights, so Chris ran over to see if it was still on.  He came back saying it was off, so we had to go home. I told him it was way too early, since it was summer time, and I took a turn going check. Sure enough, the carousel was going, so I called Chris to bring Tucker over.  His face lit up when he saw it!  He hasn't been to the mall lately as his behavior was rough the last time we had to take him off of the carousel a few months ago.

Here is a picture of Tucker, with his new bear, riding the carousel.  Also, his Daddy was right next to him taking the picture, so this child was on cloud nine :-) And of course I was standing on the sidelines crying my eyes out. 

He was very compliant when his second turn was over and it was time to go home.  We think that his 5th birthday was fantastic, and we haven't even had the party yet.   Thanks for checking in on us and for all the birthday wishes from everyone for Tucker.