A catch-up of Ruthie's weekend and some BIG news!

Big Ruthie-news and a re-cap of her birthday weekend....which one should I write about first?

Oh, most definitely, the BIG NEWS!! Now for some of you this won't be as a big a deal as it is for us, but I don't care that's okay. We've been working with Ruthie in weekly (now to be twice-weekly) OT on various textures, tastes, anything that she may be willing to eat. We've tried purees, various liquids, rice noodles, mixed veggies, MumMums, steak sauce, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, Italian dressing, sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, and many others. 

Today, we had SUCCESS! Ruthie VOLUNTARILY chomped on THREE bites of her MumMum cracker (dipped in BBQ sauce, nonetheless), chewed them up, and swallowed them.

With no gagging. 

That's right, I said NO gagging.

This is such a huge thing for her! I had tears in my eyes and was suddenly aware, for the first time in a long time, of a future that may not have to include a g-tube. 

When we got home, I let her nap and we tried again. Below, you'll see some proof that maybe, just perhaps, we're catching on to something.

That's right. She's chewing a piece.

  In other news, Ruthie's birthday weekend was good fun FANTASTIC! We had a low-key day on her actual birthday and enjoyed some family time. Saturday was her party and she had a great turn-out! I think we counted around 70-80 friends and family who came to celebrate. She did really well, though she was tired and hot, and even let a few people hold her. She wasn't very interested in her cake and when we pushed her hands into it, she started crying, so....no cake for Ruthie. =) (By the way, the pictures will show the true beauty, but Meemer did a BEAUTIFUL job decorating the Hello Kitty cake!) 

On Sunday, we had Ruthie dedicated at church. We had about 18 family members there with us and it was so wonderful. She was truly a child of Jesus before she was given to us, and was clearly held in His hand through some very tumultuous times, so we want to make it known we give her back to God and we will do our best to raise her in the love of Christ. 

The family went to lunch after church and it was a nice time to catch up and pass Ruthie around (as she allowed) and wind down all the festivities of the weekend. I know we were all glad to get to bed last night and catch up on some much-needed sleep. Hopefully the pictures will be available soon to show you all - my brother and his wife do a great job with their photography business and I can't wait to see the proof!