I waited for him for 3 hours

No. I would never consider going out to dinner as a gift. To me that's something you do just to celebrate the day together. The gift would be something else.

I tend to get my gifts weeks in advance so I don't run into that sort of problem, you just never know what might come up last minute. I just find a good hiding spot in the house that I know he'll never look.

At some point I've learned or better said, continue learning to consider spoilers like that, as if they happened it was for a reason.

It might sound a little like "what else can I say" but it's a form of looking things the positive way.

That's the only gift if we have the money we do. We don't need any fancy gifts right now to know that we love each other.
And sometimes that's the way the ball bounces when you have kids. Trust me I have to work around 2 nappers & a night shifter. So we just have to roll with the punches and take things as they come even if they don't go our way or as planned.

When there is a baby in the house, all plans are changeable. Hope and assume that your uncle understood. Going out to dinner and the uncle is babysitting ...guessing...??? Its a date nite....can't be beat. Just time out alone is good. go on a back road and make out afterward...don't get caught!

I wouldn't mind if the dinner will be the gift. I would, in fact, be thankful for it. The thought, time and effort for people to come to sit down for dinner with me would be very much appreciated. With my late husband and myself, we always celebrate each other's birthday even without a gift. Dinner and valuable time I had with him was already enough. We tried to adjust to something that cropped up, too.