alexist

I just remembered a funny story from my SIL Sara's birthday last month.

Her husband did a whole collage of photos of her. One of the photos was actually Neil (he was 2-3, and they looked very alike at that age). I spotted it immediately. In fact, I noticed it before my in-laws! (It was the expression--pure Neil.)

I was also looking at old photos at my grandma's when I visited. There's a recurring theme in my childhood birthday photos: a picture of me looking sad, as I look down at the chocolate ice-cream I've managed to get down the front of whatever my mother has dressed me up in. There's one from every birthday from 2 to 6 or 7. (After that I didn't stop being messy, I just didn't get dressed up. :) )

I wasn't deliberately messy (I was actually really good that way; I enjoyed getting dressed up and wouldn't go play in the mud) but I was really uncoordinated, so something like ice-cream was a guaranteed mess.

There was barely a physical milestone I met on time. To give you some idea, I never crawled properly (I managed a bit backwards but that was it). If you sat me up I stayed there but that was it. Finally, when I was 22 months, I got up and walked--by which point my mother was absolutely frantic despite being assured by the doctor that there was nothing wrong with me. Mentally, I was great (my mother still can't get over the fact that at 6 months I would wave and say "hello" to people from my stroller, and I taught myself to read when I was 2). Physically... let's just say I found a kindergarten report card noting the fact I couldn't skip. And the less said about gym, the better!