The Lord knows me best...

Riley's birthday came and went without incident. In fact ,the Lord gave me a blessing in disguise, although for the record I'm not sure it was any easier than just crying all day long.

On Wednesday evening, the day before her birthday, Riley was running an innocent low-grade fever. She has been cutting teeth left and right and so I figured that was the reason behind her temperature. When I went to wake her up on Thursday with camera in tow (I wanted to get the first picture of the birthday girl), she was standing up in her crib, face as red as a tomato, SCREAMING, and eyes sunken into her face. She most definitely was not the cuddle bug I had accepted to see. I picked her up and she was almost too hot to touch. I took her temperature and it was 104.5 degrees. Hmm. That's not good.

If Riley had been my first child I probably would have panicked and called our pediatrician immediately, but I knew that a little bit of Tylenol would bring her fever down and hopefully renew her spirits. I, of course, was bummed that she was sick on her birthday but I quickly learned that all a baby wants to do when they're sick, or at least MY sick baby, is cuddle! She clung to me like a moth to a flame all day long and it was wonderful. Her fever broke for short periods of time so that she could splash in our pool, play with her toys, but she spent the majority of the time in my arms. There is nothing better than a sick child who just wants to be held by their momma. Granted, I would have rather not had her be sick but since she was, it was a great way to celebrate her birth.

There was another perk to her being sick. I was so consumed with taking care of her that I completely forgot about the whole emotional time bomb I was so sure would come yesterday. I never cried and I never felt sad that she was no longer my little baby. The day, although nothing like I had imagined, was perfect.

Now we just have to look forward to her birthday party tomorrow. Hopefully she feels well enough to dive into her cake and make me question why letting a one year-old eat an entire cake by themselves is a fun idea.

In summary, I think God knew that by not allowing Riley to get sick on her birthday I would probably just fester in the fact that years go by too quickly, but instead He gave me a situation that occupied my mind so that it couldn't wander to those thoughts. He's so smart.