The "Happy Birthday" That Wasn't.

Ben caught some kind of nasty junk several days before his birthday, but a trip to the doctor resulted in a diagnosis of a double ear infection, a prescription for an antibiotic, and a promise that Ben would be feeling "much better" by his birthday and "back to one hundred percent" by his party a few days later.

We started the antibiotic and didn't see much progress. Ben's temperature were spiking to 104 degrees overnight and we did cool baths at 2am several nights in a row. It was scary. And miserable. Then I got sick, too.

By the time Ben woke up at 10am on his big day (proof that he really must not have been feeling well), I had already been to the doctor, been diagnosed with a sinus infection, pink eye (what the...?) and sent away with two more prescriptions. When we heard Ben rouse, I went in to his room to greet him and take a picture of his first morning as a one-year-old. This is what I got.

Sad baby. We calmed him down and attempted to proceed with a few festivities. I had planned to make him pancakes with sprinkles for breakfast, but I just couldn't muster the energy since I figured he wouldn't eat them anyway. He hadn't really eaten much of anything in about three days, so I made a game-time decision to simply make his bananas a little more festive.

He didn't even eat one bite.

Tim blew some bubbles to distract him and cheer him a bit. It was sweet, but it didn't work.

We got Ben dressed and thought maybe opening a few gifts would lift his spirits. He generally loves ripping paper and playing with boxes. This is pretty much how that turned out:

And so it went. Ben ended up sleeping most of the day, which is probably exactly what he needed. I think he was awake for a grand total of four hours of his entire birthday.

Grandmpa, Grandpa, and Uncle Anthony came over that evening to give Ben some birthday kisses and open a few more presents. He perked up a bit when they walked in, and did a little better opening gifts the second time around.

We were even able to skype with Great-Grandma and Grandpa in Montana so they could sing Happy Birthday to Ben.

We did get a few smiles out of him.

After opening gifts and taking a bath, Ben went to bed early. I know this is a birthday he will never remember. I know he doesn't "get it." But I know it's a special day, and I wanted it to be fun for him. It wasn't, really. Our family and friends were so kind and gracious. I got phone calls and messages all day long letting me know people were thinking of Ben and celebrating him, and that was the best part of the day.

We went to bed that evening praying that those antibiotics would kick-in on overdrive and Ben would feel better for his party two days later. But that's a story for another day...