The Rucks Reality Show: Tinsae's 4th Birthday

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Tinsae's 4th Birthday

Tinsae turned 4 years old on Friday, 11-11-11. What an awesome date to celebrate such a special little boy’s day of birth! This was probably the only time Tinsae has ever celebrated his special day, so it took some “prep work” to explain to him what was going to happen at his birthday party that evening.

For the past two weeks, I have been telling Tinsae that his birthday was coming up and he was going to be 4 years old. This didn’t mean anything to him, so we also told him that we were going to have a party for him with cake and balloons. Finally, we were getting somewhere. Tinsae loves “cake”, which he thinks is anything from pumpkin bread to banana bread to brownies to an actual cake with frosting. And balloons, well he has LOVED those since most adoptive parents bring them to the care centers and let the children play with them. Just the talk of cake and balloons was enough to get Tinsae excited about his upcoming birthday.

On Friday, I went in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Tinsae as he was waking up in bed. He was all smiles and asked if he was getting cake and balloons! (He’s such a smart little man!) We headed into town and did some shopping with Grandma Lenz and then lunch at Culver’s (he loves his chicken tenders and fries). He took a “little tegna” (nap) and was all smiles when he woke up. His brothers and sisters all came home from school and the excitement shown all over his face. They all started singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him and he was just boucing around the house. He was so ready for his birthday party…so I thought!

We went to Aunt Kris’ home for the birthday party, which was all decorated with balloons and more. He was a little quiet but ran off to the downstairs of toys and fun. The next time he came upstairs, you could see the fear in his eyes. There were more people now and he wasn’t quite sure of anything. I went to pick him up and show him his cake, but he was trying to take in all the people, noise, etc.

After we all ate an awesome fish dinner (thank you Uncle Steve B), we decided to sing and have some cake. That’s when you could see Tinsae morph back into his pre-adoption photos. No smile. No emotion. He just sat on Ally’s lap while everyone sang. WAY TOO MUCH!! He was able to blow out the candles, but he was still on edge. I brought him a piece of cake as quickly as possible, and he started to relax again.

As soon as everyone ate their cake (or Packer cookies) I asked that we do presents. Tinsae had NO CONCEPT of receiving a birthday present (or any present for that matter) or how to open the present. I had Ally show him how to open the present but he was SO CAREFUL. It was like he didn’t want to rip the paper. I had to help him out a little bit the first time but after that he turned into the typical little boy opening up his birthday presents. Tinsae LOVED everything he received! He was so cute, precious, adorable, and sweet!

We LOVE you Tinsae and hope you had an AWESOME 4^th birthday!

Getting ready to go...