It's easy to get sidetracked when going through important documents. This morning, I went on a quest to find my grandmother's death certificate in a box of family paperwork, keepsakes and pictures, naturally, I was bound to get distracted! In the box, I found my old baby book from the 1970's that I didn't even know existed until I discovered it last winter. Last winter, I was packing up my house and just threw it in a box to store at my aunt's place. I didn't take a close look at it.
The fact that it even exists is a surprise. My mom wasn't sentimental and she wasn't a writer. She favored store bought cards and would never write more than "Love, Mom". She mailed care packages to me in college and filled them with cookies and boxes of Kleenex, but no note. I know that my mom loved me, but she wasn't the type to express it through writing and she didn't hold on to things. She would often go through the photo albums and cull the pictures, just tossing ones that she no longer felt were relevant. She got rid of my toys without asking me, when she thought that I no longer needed them. Not sentimental at all.
The baby book isn't completely filled out. Many pages are blank, an abandoned project. However, there are some hidden gems and made me laugh.
1. According to several early doctor's visits, I was destined to be very tall and very thin. Nope. Average and average. Maybe they are just telling parents what they want to hear?
2. Also according to early doctor's visits, I will have perfect teeth. This one is closer to the truth, as my teeth are nice and healthy..but still, not dead on.
3. My parent's named me Karen for my Norwegian heritage. I had to look it up. They screwed up, it's not Norwegian. Karen has Danish and Armenian roots. In Armenian, it's a boys name and seeing as Glendale has a large Armenian population, I have been teased quite a bit over my name. Thanks mom and dad.
5. A list of the names of my imaginary friends - Buddy, Lucy, Harry, Mabel and Henry. I guess being an old child is lonely( which I don't really believe) or maybe this is the start of my vivid imaginary life!
6. On a family tree chart, I discovered that my maternal great grandparents had a twenty-nine year age difference. Yikes!
7. My first movie theater experience was Song of the South. Probably only time that I have seen that movie.
8. Favorite food- Gerber's mixed Veggies. Yep, still love veggies. Maybe this is why they thought that I would be very thin?
9. When I got lost in the mall, I made sure to tell the sales person that "Mommy got lost."
10. It seems like every present for every holiday from my paternal grandparents involved a homemade clown doll. Not a fan of clowns or dolls.
11. First plane trip was at three months and it was to exotic Ringsted, Iowa on Western Airlines.
12. I was obsessed with the cat (MeTwo) who wanted nothing to do with me.
The book has great 1970's era illustrations of children. My favorite is the page on first day of school that has a little girl in a red cape looking like Little Red Riding Hood. I wish more of the book had been filled out, but just finding a baby book was a shocker.