in which i attempt to create a meme
okay, not really, but i'm hoping some other people will do this too. if only to humour me.
there are stories about me as a baby that i find fascinating because i have no memory of them, so it's like hearing about a stranger. but a stranger who grew up to be me so i sort of get the credit. they're the kinds of stories that get told when family gets together and starts laughing about the funny/charming things we all did when very young. and i love them! so i decided to start trying to remember them and record them. and i want other people to do it as well.
1. until i was about two years old i never slept through the night. the first time it happened, my mother woke up at 6am or so and was terrified i had died. so she woke up my dad and made him go check to see if i was still alive.
[tree: messing with your head since 1979.]
2. probably around the same time, my mum set up a wading pool in our backyard. i happily got in wearing my tiny person's bathing suit and played for a few minutes. then i got out and stripped off my bathing suit before getting back in the pool. mum asked me why i'd taken the suit off and i said, "because it's wet!"
[it's actual very logical when you think about it.]
3. i stopped wearing nappies at night before i stopped wearing them during the day. one night i told my mum i didn't want to wear a nappy and she said, "okay but if you wet the bed you'll have to wear one again." and i never wet the bed from then on.
[see above about wetness. also i can just imagine my baby logic, "in the daytime there are fun things and i don't want to have to stop and go to the toilet. so, the nappies can stay. but at night time that's just gross."]
4. we lived with my grandparents for a while when i was a baby. my grandpa was a truck driver and he used to get up obscenely early to go to work and would come home in the early afternoon. when i was just starting to talk, i used to go sit in front of the door at around the same time every afternoon and say, "aaaaahs paaaas caaaaas". it took my mum and gran a while to work out that i was saying, "where's pa's car?"
[baby!tree grasping the concept of time, awww yissss. also vowels.]
5. when my grandpa watched horse races on the telly, i would toddle around to the side and back of the tv, trying to see where the horses had gone.
[i also used to think that tiny people were inside the radio, singing. that doesn't count for this meme, though, because it's something i remember.]
6. as an infant i had a lot of digestive issues and would cry a lot. my mum would lay me on her lap and read aloud whatever was to hand: newspapers, magazines, books. apparently i would stop crying whenever she started and wouldn't make a sound until she was finished. she was convinced that even though i didn't understand the words, i knew what was going on.
[tree's proto-brain embraces the concept of narrative! is fascinated!]
7. even as an infant i didn't particularly like to be touched. there were a few select people who were allowed to hold me, but i never tolerated strangers. and even with the people i loved, i still didn't like being touched very often, and i liked to be on my own. or, like, in the same room as someone else but not interacting with them. except for my mum. she's always been the exception. sometimes i like to say to her, "i've seen you from the inside!"
[tree: introverted to the max from birth. also weird.]
8. when i figured out how to walk, i was less interested in walking than running. the process was sort of like: 1. stand, 2. hurl self forward. mum bought me a little trolley sort of thing and i used to make my cousin kathy sit in it while i ran up and down the front verandah pushing it. she was very amenable to this and i apparently enjoyed it immensely.
[yeah, i don't know what that's about. little freak.]
okay, now you!
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.
there are stories about me as a baby that i find fascinating because i have no memory of them, so it's like hearing about a stranger. but a stranger who grew up to be me so i sort of get the credit. they're the kinds of stories that get told when family gets together and starts laughing about the funny/charming things we all did when very young. and i love them! so i decided to start trying to remember them and record them. and i want other people to do it as well.
1. until i was about two years old i never slept through the night. the first time it happened, my mother woke up at 6am or so and was terrified i had died. so she woke up my dad and made him go check to see if i was still alive.
[tree: messing with your head since 1979.]
2. probably around the same time, my mum set up a wading pool in our backyard. i happily got in wearing my tiny person's bathing suit and played for a few minutes. then i got out and stripped off my bathing suit before getting back in the pool. mum asked me why i'd taken the suit off and i said, "because it's wet!"
[it's actual very logical when you think about it.]
3. i stopped wearing nappies at night before i stopped wearing them during the day. one night i told my mum i didn't want to wear a nappy and she said, "okay but if you wet the bed you'll have to wear one again." and i never wet the bed from then on.
[see above about wetness. also i can just imagine my baby logic, "in the daytime there are fun things and i don't want to have to stop and go to the toilet. so, the nappies can stay. but at night time that's just gross."]
4. we lived with my grandparents for a while when i was a baby. my grandpa was a truck driver and he used to get up obscenely early to go to work and would come home in the early afternoon. when i was just starting to talk, i used to go sit in front of the door at around the same time every afternoon and say, "aaaaahs paaaas caaaaas". it took my mum and gran a while to work out that i was saying, "where's pa's car?"
[baby!tree grasping the concept of time, awww yissss. also vowels.]
5. when my grandpa watched horse races on the telly, i would toddle around to the side and back of the tv, trying to see where the horses had gone.
[i also used to think that tiny people were inside the radio, singing. that doesn't count for this meme, though, because it's something i remember.]
6. as an infant i had a lot of digestive issues and would cry a lot. my mum would lay me on her lap and read aloud whatever was to hand: newspapers, magazines, books. apparently i would stop crying whenever she started and wouldn't make a sound until she was finished. she was convinced that even though i didn't understand the words, i knew what was going on.
[tree's proto-brain embraces the concept of narrative! is fascinated!]
7. even as an infant i didn't particularly like to be touched. there were a few select people who were allowed to hold me, but i never tolerated strangers. and even with the people i loved, i still didn't like being touched very often, and i liked to be on my own. or, like, in the same room as someone else but not interacting with them. except for my mum. she's always been the exception. sometimes i like to say to her, "i've seen you from the inside!"
[tree: introverted to the max from birth. also weird.]
8. when i figured out how to walk, i was less interested in walking than running. the process was sort of like: 1. stand, 2. hurl self forward. mum bought me a little trolley sort of thing and i used to make my cousin kathy sit in it while i ran up and down the front verandah pushing it. she was very amenable to this and i apparently enjoyed it immensely.
[yeah, i don't know what that's about. little freak.]
okay, now you!
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.