#12

Drake trying to run from the camera very early this morning!

How can it be that 12 years ago you came into the world? When I close my eyes I see you with your chubby cheeks and huge grin as a baby and I think about the day you were born. Just a week before I had been to the doctor and discovered that you had decided to spin around and become "breech"!
Not content to enter the world in the conventional way, I had begun having contractions the night before. Your Dad and I took Auntie Cara out to dinner at he Hard Rock Cafe in Vegas (she had just returned from a trip to Washington) and since we lived in Vegas, we were the designated airport goers!
Your Dad even almost didn't make it home for your arrival. You see on April 20th an awful thing happened in Colorado at a place called Columbine. It was a tragedy of epic proportions and an event that has forever changed the way people think. Your Dad worked for a company in Vegas that hired out news crews to the western half of the country and he was sent with a crew for a news program called "Inside Edition". He spent the next 6 days following around a reporter and feeling awful for digging around the personal lives of the victims. He had a nagging feeling that you were going to come soon so, he called his boss and insisted he be sent home. His boss agreed.
The day you arrived I drove to G'ma and G'pa Nelson's with Auntie Cara. I was having contractions still. They weren't painful at all, just annoying and she and I ate at Subway before she continued home to Arizona. I hadn't slept well that night and I laid down for a nap. I slept for three hours and woke up still having contractions. G'ma had come home from work by this point and your Dad called and insisted they take me to the hospital to be checked out and he started to drive in from Vegas.
We went to the hospital and found out that I was 6 cm and you were coming whether you were coming the right way or not! They immediately got ready for a c-section and G'ma Nelson came with me to hold my hand. At 8:48 pm you were born 3 and a half weeks early and still weighing in at 7lbs 1oz! A mass of dark hair on your head. Dad made it there right after you were born, but G'ma Nelson and Aunt Shaunah got to hold you first. ;0)
This day describes Drake so very well! Determined to do things his own way and eager to learn and grow, almost like he couldn't wait to get started! He makes me a better person by just being my son. I have learned to be patient, to be firm, to love unconditionally even when he can't always reflect it back. He wakes up happy to learn everyday with a smile and a sunny greeting to the world. I'm so happy to have you, my boy Drake. ;0)