Baden's 1st Birthday

Life is filled with so many moments that I just want burned onto my brain so that I never forget them.

One such moment happened at our local Children's Museum at a Halloween party for pre-schoolers that we attended. It was October 30, 2007, the day that my son turned 4 years old. At the time I was on the Advisory Committee for the Children's Museum and I'd mentioned to a couple staff members and volunteers that it was Baden's birthday. At one point, between the story time and flashlight dancing, they'd gathered all of the children together, most who were complete strangers, and sang Happy Birthday to Baden. At first he was confused and then the realization that this song was for him washed over his face, leaving him teary eyed and smiling with pride from ear to ear, and I honestly thought he was going to explode with joy. This was the first time he had celebrated his birthday and truly didn't know what to make of the situation, but one thing was clear - he loved it. The other adults were as moved as he was. In a world full of birthdays taken for granted, here was a little boy who understood that this was an occasion to celebrate.

The following day his birthday was celebrated at pre-school during the Halloween party and his face was beaming with joy just as it had the day before. In fact, I'm not sure he even came down from the clouds he was floating on the previous day. We went trick-or-treating that afternoon and evening, continuing his birthday celebration into the weekend.

On Sunday evening we had a large family birthday celebration for him at my parents' house and again the pure joy of being sung a song that seems so standard fare to most kids, touched his soul so deeply.

To this day Baden responds in much the same manner, from a place that only someone who had gone several years without being celebrated could understand.

Baden's 5th birthday celebration at pre-school in October 2008

We celebrated with his Grandparents on Scott's side of the family as well as one set of his God-parents who were visiting from Los Angeles that weekend. He actually asked us to sing Happy Birthday to him when we sat down to dinner.

October 30, 2009: Baden turned 6 and celebrated with a "Halloween costume dress-up party" at my parents house, location per his request.That night Baden got to choose where he wanted to go for dinner and he chose his favorite Chinese restaurant in town, Hong Kong Garden. He loves it because the owners are very nice and allow the kids to feed the koi in their pond when they visit. We just so happened to run into a friend of mine that I've known since we were 3, who also has October 30th for her birthday.