MPT #2 preschool years: can't get enough attention

i thought this first "piggy tailed" photo would be appropriate for the second installment of "mommy's piggy tales" recording my childhood...i also have this photo as my thumbnail in various places...i suppose i still feel a child at heart...so i have a bunch of disclaimers i'll leave off as i'm not sure they explain much or enhance what i'm trying to say...in fact, i'm not sure what i'm trying to say at all which makes it difficult to weave my theme through these 15 childhood tales...so instead i just found the photos i have on my hard drive (most childhood photos are at my mom's house) from my preschool years and i figure i'll weave a story through explaining them...the fact that i had these photos scanned for our wedding reception slide show indicates they had some meaning for me...i'm not sure how old i am here eating whip cream at my neighbor's house...i've always had a sweet tooth...one thing i wish i hadn't passed on to my children...
i've also always been very verbal and loud and talkative...i guess i was one of the first to talk in sabbath school (and one of the first to walk...sea, my daughter walked at 9 months and 1 week old)...i remember from a very young age saying "look at me! let me just show you one more thing! watch!" etc...i could never get enough attention and always had more to share or show or do...i remember trying to get the attention of all the adults whenever my parents had people over "i can play that game, let me try" etc...
this next photo was taken with my neighbor ginky...this was a real live lion though i'm told he was probably sedated to allow this photo...still kind of crazy...i like to take risks so this photo seemed appropriate to show that side of me...my son is not as occupied as i wanted him to be while i try to record this so i can't go into all the stories of time spent with my neighbors...kristin was 5 years older than me and doted over me from the moment i was born...she told me recently that she used to build a block tower for me every day and then wait for me to wake up from my nap so i could knock it over. that story brings tears to my eyes just knowing i got that kind of adoring attention (my daughter is 5 right now so i can imagine her with a newborn). she continued to foster my development, play with me, spark my imagination, build me up, tell me how brilliant i was, etc. as i grew up...i believed her and attribute a lot of my self-confidence to these early years with her...i regret i don't have photos of us together...
here i am struck by my prominent bangs (my mom has been lobbying for me to cut bangs on my daughter) and my CURLS! i notice this because my hair is naturally stick straight but my mom was so obsessed with curls she would curl my hair with a curling iron or, put my hair in pink sponge rollers when i went to bed at night...i still like my STRAIGHT hair to this day probably because she pushed this so much...
this photo was taken by a professional photographer in my parent's home town and he liked the photo so much he used it in some printed ads for his studio...actually i'm looking at it again and this may not be the photo i was thinking of, but it reminded me of that idea...i can see the purple jacarunda tree in our front yard in the background...there are many of these blooming in san diego and for some reason they remind me of my dad...we spent a lot of time together in that side yard, under those blossoms...photos in front of the tree...i want to plant one at our house to be a constant reminder of those years and of him (he passed away 4 years ago if you didn't know)...
this is the photo i accidentally deleted in my last post of my mom with her fancy hair and my dad...sitting in front of our fire place...
this is a photo of my dad's dad who i called "granddaddy" (also what my daughter sea called my dad before he passed away), my grandma meme and me holding my dad's hand...i love all the 70's polyester prints...
this is my neighbor "ginky" again with my newborn sister marci. i am just over 3 years older than her. this is a noteworthy photo because apparently my parent's camera broke when she was born and they were unable (or unwilling) to borrow one or have anyone take any newborn photos so this must have been my neighbor's camera...
this photo is of my mom's dad "papa", me, my sister marci on my mom's mom "mimi"'s lap next to my mom with her extra high hair...this was taken at our dining room table...my mom recently told me a story of my papa giving me a bag of 50 cent pieces for christmas and how thrilled i was to have money, count it, play with it...i regret he died before i turned 10 and i didn't get to know him better...he also liked to write and i may dig up some of his stories to share at some point in this childhood recording journey...
i love this photo of our family...you can tell how much i adore my dad (that will probably be another ongoing theme how i was a "daddy's girl" and my sister and my mom paired off)...this photo was taken in our side yard...
this i believe was taken at my sister's 1st birthday...
nothing in particular i wanted to say about this photo except i like how we are both happily sitting together, 70's decorations, pigtails...my sister looked up to me at this age and i was probably as mean to her as sea is to her little brother...that would get better with age...
my mom looks like a quaker or something in this photo...she sometimes dressed my sister and i alike...i don't know if i have mentioned yet that my mom's dad was a traveling sales man who switched jobs and moved the family across the country every 6 months or so...my mom really wanted to build a house and "root it to the ground" and never move...she still lives in the house i was born in...this photo was taken in front of our house before any houses were built across the street...
here is another matching outfits photo...my mom sewed these dresses...
and here is a fairly recent shot of my daughter sea wearing the same dress...

one more xmas shot...i like our barrettes...
here is a photo from my 5th birthday...my daughter sea just turned 5 so this is coming full circle for me...
finally, i figure my mom was exhausted watching us at this age so this seemed like an appropriate end photo...
while we are on the topic of sleep, i just wanted to mention that we still co-sleep with my 5 and 2.5-year-old...by OUR choice...i think the oldest is almost ready to be on her own...but i sometimes wonder how my relationship would have been with my parents if they had co-slept with me. i ask this because apparently soon after i was able to walk, every night after my mom tucked me in bed, shortly after i would sleep walk out into the hallway between my bedroom and theirs and sit down with my legs crossed in a pretzel and then lie my head down on my feet and SLEEP like that until my mom came and put me back in bed. (i'm still really limber in yoga moves from these early stretches!) i also slept walked and talked a lot.

i have so many more stories from this age but they all sort of blur together instead of forming a theme or outline building up to who i am today...i suppose some of the basic info i'll share (without supporting photos) is that i lived in the same house in southern california for 18 years before leaving for college. we lived on a hill with a gully behind our house and i spent many, many years exploring trees/bushes, digging trails, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors. i had several neighbor friends who were all older than me who i looked up to and learned from...they were all creative yet a little depressive themselves and i feel they were big influences on me...i was always seeking their attention and approval and they were usually happy to give it to me (i figure at their age their peers were not showering them with as much attention).

one specific activity i remember enjoying was riding down the hill we lived on in a red radio flyer wagon. i would sit in front and my sister and our friend sat behind me, legs wrapped around my body. i would use the handle and turn it left or right to steer the wagon and we would run over stink bugs as we flew down. this is particularly scary to recall as there was a blind curve in the road and cars could have come up and hit us...

the last thing i guess i'll mention from this age is that my mom ran a preschool out of our home for a few years before i started school. so i not only had her as a stay-at-home mom, but a lot of early socialization from other preschoolers. i believe there were 8 students and she had big round tables and little chairs, a chalkboard, and lots of art and school decorations from her years teaching 1st grade. i didn't go to kindergarten (just attended this preschool another year before starting first grade) so my school experience memories won't start until my next post.

i had hoped to pull the "can't get enough attention" theme back through...in my free associations with these photos, that was the idea that came to my mind...that was true for much of my life, but especially in those early formative years.

i'm visiting my mom this weekend and hope to dig up more photos and uncover more memories for future recordings. i am enjoying the journey and glad to be doing it with a group!