Stories from Growing Up: My Parents Must Have Gotten Quite a Kick Out of Me

After an afternoon spent in the baby books, I have unearthed a number of charming, adorable, ridiculous, and alarming things that I did in my childhood and of which my mother managed to capture photographic evidence. Here, for your reading pleasure, are a few of the highlights:

- Sleeping sideways in my crib with my legs sticking out through the bars (8.5 months)
- Offering my right index finger to a baby cow at a petting zoo (18 months)
- Combing/pulling my Aunt Jayne's hair with a doll hairbrush (2 yrs)
- Helping Mom pay the bills (2.5 yrs)
- Riding the "alligator" (elevator) incessantly with Grandma while Dad visited Mom in the hospital during her pregnancy with Matthew (2.5 yrs)
- "Helping" Dad cut down the Christmas tree in 1992 with a saw that was as tall as I was (3 yrs)
- Reading a 9-month-old Matthew my favorite book, Milk and Cookies. (3 yrs. DEFINITELY NOT old enough to read)
- Drawing and coloring while on the john. The birth of my gift for multi-tasking. (3 yrs)
- Allowing myself to be bathed outside in a bucket while camping. (3.5 yrs)
- Sunbathing completely nude at Dad's cousin's cottage. In my defense, though, my suit was full of seaweed and sand and it was icky. (3.5 yrs)
- Wearing my birthday crown from preschool for an entire week. (4 yrs)
- Sledding down the porch steps on my very own custom-made sled run built by Dad. (4 yrs)
- Eating lunch at the kiddie table with Matthew and Grandma on Memorial Day 1994. (4.5 yrs)
- Losing my first pair of glasses. Found them three days later in Matthew's closet, where we had been playing House. Mom and Dad were not pleased. (5 yrs)
- Performing tests and operations on a 6-month-old Drew after he got back from a stay in the hospital. We had to make sure the real doctors did their job properly. (5 yrs)
- Ruining my perfect Kindergarten attendance record by staying in the hospital for a few days with a severe case of croup (viral infection of the trachea). I remember enjoying it though because I got lots of presents and I had a TV in my room. (6 yrs)

Beyond 6 years old, I couldn't find pictures of me doing weird things. I think it's because my mom couldn't snap the picture fast enough. It certainly wasn't because I stopped doing those weird things. :)