For Stephanie's extra day, yesterday we had a birthday party for Nathan at a local park. Me, mom and dad and Charles had each brought him one present for that day, but Stephanie didn't bring him a thing! All she did was buy the cake. She didn't even get him a present. Some of my friends over the internet, who haven't even met Nathan, are sending him presents for his birthday, but his own mother didn't even show enough interest.
She showed mom pics of Nathan from his first birthday, and mom said it was the saddest thing she had ever seen. Nathan looked so unhappy. His eyes looked so hollow. I remember the look in his eyes when we got him back last year. I remember it so vividly. In them was the look of someone who had seen to much pain, been through too much, it was not the look you expect a one year old to have. He lost his spirit during those three weeks and I thank God we got him back, that he is now the happy, spirited boy that he used to be. Everytime she's around though, he's not really himself, he retracts a little bit into his shell again.

Anyway, we're going to have his 'real' party tomorrow, on his actual birthday. We have our own cake, and we saved the presents we thought he'd like the most, plus since Charles gets his paycheck tomorrow, we're going to take him to pick out something else.

And I will post pics. Promise.