Repost, with pictures (Thanks Mom!)

I was born, a month early, on September 15, 1981. That makes me a Virgo if you keep up with that sort of thing. I don't really, and I'm certainly not neat and orderly like Virgos are supposed to be. Anyway, I digress. I was born in Sanford, NC, where my mom and dad had grown up All of my grandparents lived right there in town, and I was the first grandchild for all of them. I was doted on. I loved it. I'm told that I was pretty cranky when my mom wasn't around. I've been a mama's girl from the start. I weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces, but I was a chubby little thing that first year. I landed in the hospital for a while early on because of a bad case of jaundice. My weight dropped to something like 5 pounds while there, before I got chubby, especially my knees and my chubby little feet. They had to make special shoes to fit my almost square shaped feet. And I had the blonde curly hair even then. My mom has this picture of me laying on her stomach, and her on the couch...I love that picture, and I suppose it sums up my first year pretty well. Mom said all she wanted to do was hold me. I think that's sweet.

Obviously, I don't remember those days. But it was really the only time my mom and dad lived together. Knowing them both as I do, I can't imagine what that would have been like...but they were both so young! I was so immature when I was 20, but my mom raised a kid! So she was 21, and my dad 26, and me crawling around on the floor. We had a dog-Harry. He was an Airedale, I think my dad's first of many.

Based on pictures, and stories told, I figure this is how I spent my days:

Hanging out with my mom or grandma. Figuring out how the world works. Learning to walk. Learning to talk. Going to church every Sunday. Spending lots of time with grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles. Also, by the end of that first year, I had developed a love of pickles. There are a lot of pictures of me toddling around eating a pickle, so I must have had a lot of them. Raisins too. And, at my house, there was a bathroom that had a mirrored wall. I think I can remember staring into that mirror. Last time I was in Sanford, my mom and I rode around and looked at our old houses, because we're sentimental like that, and I took a picture:

A lot has changed since that year, but some things have blessedly stayed the same:

My grandparents are all still living in the same houses.
I still go to the same church when I'm in town.
My dad still has a dog.
I still get cranky if I have to go too long without my mom.
I still like pickles.
My hair is still curly.
I still have chubby little knees and feet.
And I still love a mirror, God help me.

Come to think of it, I think that first year did a pretty good job of setting up who I turned into.