From Teeny-Tiny to Teenager

I remember the moment I first felt pregnant with Ammon. He was our first child, and it was so exciting.

I remember the day I found my first stretch mark on my tummy. I was so sad and I cried all day. The next day, I just felt glad that my body could grow with the growing baby inside of it.

I remember the first time I heard his heartbeat. I was alone at the doctor's office, and I cried out of pure happiness. It was such an incredible feeling.

I remember the first time I felt him move...one morning when I was getting ready for my shower. It was my most favorite part about being pregnant--feeling the little flutters and kicks of the baby.

I remember the day I had my first ultrasound. Josh came with me, and we looked at the screen and we discovered together that we were having a boy. I was sooo happy, and so was Josh.

I remember talking with Josh trying to come up with the perfect name for our son. I bought a book of "14,000 names for your baby". I wrote names down that I liked as I looked through the book, and Josh would cross them off the list. We liked Gabriel, and Zachary, and Ammon.

I remember finding out at my last prenatal appointment that I would have to deliver our baby C-Section, because he was overdue, and his head was so big that he hadn't even dropped yet. I was so scared and nervous. So, I got to work decorating the baby's bedroom in Winnie the Pooh paraphernalia to take my mind off my anxiety.

I remember my delivery day at the old hospital in Tremonton. The Dr. started me on Pitocin that morning. Josh and I watched a couple of movies while I was having contractions that I couldn't even feel. The nurses and Dr. kept very close watch over me and the little one's vitals, and decided that a C-Section was for sure the way to go. They wheeled me out of the delivery room and into the OR around 1:00. They gave me a painful shot in my lower back. The Dr. turned on some classical music. Josh sat by my side. They cut me open and pulled you out. You were a darling little baby with a very mad face...you weren't ready for the big world. You were a big baby, and had the biggest head in the nursery. As time passed, you grew into that big head that contained your beautiful mind and intelligent brain.

I remember milestones of your infancy... the first time you rolled over in the living room of our house in Tremonton while you were laying on a blanket that was made just for you, the first time you crawled when you were 7 months old on the dirt in the cow barn during the Lemhi County Fair, the first time we made you cry yourself to sleep when you were about 9 months old in the bedroom next to ours of the Chubbuck apartment.

I remember moments of your toddlerhood... watching you and your best bud Dillon play together at daycare and waiting on the front steps together for the CDC preschool bus to come and pick you up, hearing you sing the welcome song that you made up to your baby brothers when they finally came home after their hospital stay of 2 months, saying goodbye to you every day as I dropped you off for afternoon kindergarten and you always told me "love you til the last number".

I remember so many things from when you were little...but what I cannot understand or believe is how quickly time passes. It seems like once you entered first grade, the time has gone by like lightning-speed. And now, you're a mature 7th grader, and are officially a teenager.

It's been 13 years since you came into our family, and we've never been the same. You're a bright kid, and we've loved watching you grow into the young man that you are today. You continue to pleasantly surprise us with the excellence you produce in your schoolwork, in your sports, in your manners. We thought for many years that you were turning out so good because we were such great parents, but the truth is, you're such a wonderful child that we are lucky and so proud to be your parents! We love you, Ammon!

Now that Ammon is 13, his wish of getting a cell phone was granted. He also got to join facebook. And he got all the things he asked for: funky socks, black church shirt, orange tie, new chair for his room, a watch, a big jar of nutella, and a few other unimportant things!