It is official - I am the Mom of a teenager - post 5

MEMORY #5 - When Avery was 3 years and 9 months old, the biggest event ever in his young life occurred.  He became a BIG brother!  He was so excited, until he saw Riley for the first time and realized that he was too little to play basketball.  However, he soon learned that he had a captive audience to talk and talk and talk and talk to.  Mama and Daddy were so excited because they had another boy to love!  The have been inseperable ever since!  I love the way they have always played together!  Later, he became a big brother for a third and final time.  The only request that he had about Landry was that he be a boy...his wish was granted!

It is official - I am a mother of a teenager! (part 4)

My oldest son, Avery, turns 13 on Monday. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!

MEMORY #4 - No one could have prepared me for the energy that is packaged in a boy. It is something that you can not possibly comprehend until you have one…then when you add another boy…and then another boy! Whew.

Avery’s motto from the time that he could walk seemed to be, “Why sit when I can jump? Why stand when I can climb? Why walk when I can run?” He was ALWAYS on the move. It was shocking! At times I wondered if he had some sort of a problem! (I am a worrier.) Then I finally realized that this is simply the way that the Lord made boys, and the only thing to do is smile about it…and really look forward to nap and bed time! I must tell you, it does not get any calmer as they get older, it just changes; but the energy is still there!

Avery seemed to have bumps and bruises all of the time due to all of the jumping, climbing and running. Three weeks before his third Easter he jumped off of the stairs at a store and blackened both of his eyes and bruised his head. I was so worried that they would not be healed by Easter, because Clark would be taking a lot of pictures! Thankfully, they were! However, he and his Daddy were playing the DAY before Easter and Avery was riding a skateboard on his stomach down our steep driveway. At some point the skateboard stopped and he kept going. I think he used his nose and his forehead as a brake. So much for no scrapes or bruises for Easter!

It's official - I am the mother of a teenager - part 3

My oldest son, Avery, turns 13 on Monday. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom! 

Memory #3 – Avery's first word was Da-da, then Ma-ma, then ball-ball.  Everything was pronounced with the first syllable doubled.   Cook-cook (cookie), car-car, cow-cow and so on.  However, the word that we heard the most was ball-ball.  Avery was fascinated with anything that remotely looked like a ball.  I always wanted him to have a favorite stuffed animal that he would want to sleep with and drag everywhere but, no...he always had a ball.  All of our church family thought it was the greatest thing, so they continually bought him balls. There were balls all over my house!  Bro. Chester once bought him a Christmas gift that had 9 balls in it!   At night, he slept with a few of his favorite ball-balls.  After he was asleep, I would sneak in and take them out of his crib.  

When Avery was 18 months old, he fell in love with football.  Monday night football came on, and he would be WILD with excitement.  He would run, jump and tackle everything in sight!  He could barely talk, but could sing the "Are You Ready For Some Football??"  theme song with gusto!  If he did not have a ball, then his imagination kicked in.  He once turned his pacifier into a baseball and "batted" it across the church sanctuary with his wipes container during Bro. Brown's sermon.  

He has never grown out of the love of ball.  You can still sneak into his room at night, and find his favorite football buried somewhere in the covers...just don't tell him I blogged about it!

It is official - I am a mother of a teenager! (part 2)

My oldest son, Avery, turns 13 on Monday. I am in the midst of 13 memories of him…I know it is a silly Mom thing…but, it is therapeutic for this silly Mom!

Memory #2 –Avery was considered a preemie, due to the fact that he was 6 weeks early and down to 5 pounds by the time we left the hospital. Thankfully, he was very healthy! However, there were several “preemie status” rules we had to abide by until he was a certain weight. My husband – THE NEW DAD – took all of these to heart…plus some! His excitement is one of my favorite memories of being a NEW MAMA.

My Mom visited earlier in my pregnancy, and we fixed up our tiny nursery. It was so cute in pale green and yellow for either Avery or Emily (I never got that Emily, but the way!) We had received SO many gifts (blessings) that the tiny room was packed!

I was so excited to bring Avery home! One of the many hospital rules was the temperature of our home. It had to be especially warm for our very tiny baby. Clark had gone home earlier to get the house to the correct temperature before picking us up. He drove about 10 miles per hour all the way home. My Mom had decorated our house for Avery’s big arrival. It was so cute! I went straight to my organized little nursery to change Avery’s diaper. It was EMPTY…completely EMPTY! THE NEW DAD had moved EVERYTHING to the living room, because it was the warmest room in the house. He even moved all of the toys, rocking horse, clothes…that Avery would not need for months to come in! Needless to say, my mom spent many hours putting the nursery back together again!

Clark also took hundreds (literally) of pictures of Avery…and most of them look exactly the same, as you know a newborn, especially a preemie newborn, does nothing but sleep! Thirteen years ago we were still using cameras with film and actually getting them developed. The little photography shop that we used downtown LOVED the profit they were making from Clark. All of the employees knew Avery! Clark also took hours and hours of video of the sleeping baby! The day after we brought Avery home from the hospital I walked into the very warm living room and saw the video camera sitting on the table with the play button on. Clark had been taking video of himself rocking Avery for about 30 minutes! I love looking back on those new Dad moments.

It is official - I am a mother of a teenager!

"Build me a son, O Lord,

who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,

 and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid,

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,

and humble and gentle in victory."

I love this quote by Douglas MacArthur. As a mother, I feel such a weighted responsibility to shape my sons into Godly men. Some nights, in sheer exhaustion, I fall asleep knowing I am accomplishing that, and other nights I weep from the feeling of parental failure! However, when I read this quote that begins by asking the LORD to build me a son…it puts it all in perspective that He is the builder and I am a humble tool.

Another favorite quote…

"Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood,

we find a delightful creature of a boy."

We aren’t quite hitting the manhood stage in the Presson home yet; however, Avery becomes an official teenager on Monday. It is his golden birthday…13 years old on December 13th. WOW. This saddens me. I know it shouldn’t, but it does. So, take a walk down memory lane with me in the next couple of days as I share my top THIRTEEN memories of my oldest son…He has been the first to teach my every aspect of motherhood. It has been an incredible journey…

MEMORY ONE – I woke Clark up in the wee hours of the morning, six weeks before my due date. I asked him to stay awake with me for a while, because something just didn’t feel right. Of course, he insisted on calling the doctor. The doctor decided I needed to come to the hospital for a check-up. Clark was FURIOUS, LIVID, STOMPING, and RED-FACED, because I was determined to curl my hair before going to the hospital at 2a.m! We had our baby girl clothes packed for Emily Hope and our baby boy clothes packed for Avery Matthew…since we didn’t know which one we would be bringing home. Once we got to Jackson Madison County General Hospital, it was decided that a baby was determined to join us! I have so many memories of that first delivery…some pleasant and others not pleasant.  Thus, I will spare you the details of most. A few of my favorites are… Nana and Papa (my in-laws) had their phone accidentally turned off so we had to contact a neighbor to tell them they had another grandchild on the way. My parents had to drive from Illinois, and I was so excited that they arrived before Avery was born.  Clark decided, when I was dilated to 8, that he wanted a different name other than Avery Matthew if it was a boy. I told him it was too late for name changes!!

At 5:07 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, 1997 our lives were changed forever with the arrival of a tiny 6lb, red faced, blonde headed baby boy. It certainly does not seem like thirteen years ago. Within the hour, my room was full of family and church family that fell in love with my little man the second that they saw him, however, no one was more in love than me.

"There has never been, nor will there ever be,

anything quite as special as the love between a mother and a son."