The Beginning of Retro Friday

 Welcome to the beginning of my Friday series, where I go down memory lane. I thought I would start from MY beginning, so that I can have a nice timeline of sorts going here. I have always kind of wanted to do this since I started the blog, because I wanted a scrapbook of sorts to remember moments of my life, both present and past. So here we go!
I love looking at the photo of my mom pregnant with me. I often wonder how she felt at the time this photo was taken. I only know a few things about this time in her life. She was 23 in this photo (somehow she seems older to me), and my brother was maybe close to two years old. I see so many likenesses in this image of her. In it I can see my oldest daughter, and myself. If you are reading this Nicole, don't you think you look like her here in the mouth area???  My mom is Panamanian, and she probably, at this time, still didn't have a great command of the language.  She told me once how depressed she was living in the mountains of northern California, especially when winter would set in. There were days she just didn't know what to do with herself, and being a young mom with no friends in the area, must have been rough. She taught herself English by watching soap operas.
My brother was a little stinker, so I'm sure he kept her busy.  One story my mom told, was that my brother did not handle having a new baby in the house very well. She said that once, while I was taking a nap in my crib, he pulled my legs through the slats and bit me several times! He also tried to cut my hair. How a small toddler had access to scissors is a crazy thought to me.  When my mom caught him doing these things, he got in big trouble of course. He pretended to drink rubbing alcohol, and my mom had to rush him to the hospital!  I have many stories about my brother, some good, some not so good, but hey, isn't that the story of most siblings!

Here I am! I had a full head of hair, and being the only girl born in this tiny mountain hospital, the nurses went crazy playing with it. My mom use to tell me the story of the doctor who delivered me, asking her if she wanted to give me up? He had five sons, and always wanted a daughter. I'm sure my mom was kinda creeped out by this, but I'm sure he was just joking. My mom thought it was because they were a young struggling family, and they might not be able to afford having another baby. I think she was being dramatic.

These pictures were reprinted from slides, so they have kind of a dreamy quality to them. My dad took so many beautiful photos of us when we were little, and most of them were on slides. A while back I borrowed them from my mom and had them printed, so that my girls could see them, and I could include them into our family photos.  

I'm not sure how many little kid pictures I will put up on here, perhaps the ones that bring up a story or a feeling, we will see where this takes me..........

What is your favorite story of when you were born?