Who's TWO?

Who's two? Well, we are. That's who.
Howdy y'all! Crystal, here. Yes, many pictures we share today are from when your friends here at Stitches Thru Time were a part of that clan known as the "Terrible Twos." Did I say that out loud? Oops. Anyway, enjoy our adorable pictures and some of our earliest memories. (We've got a surprise waiting at the end of this post, so stay tuned. AND NO PEEKING. Yeah, I caught you. :) )

Well, Amber, kick this off for us. What is one of your earliest memories?

Amber Schamel, Age 2

Amber Schamel: The earliest thing I remember is staring at a chart on my wall in anticipation of gaining the prize. I was a thumb-sucker, and my mom told me that if I didn't suck my thumb for a certain number of nights in a row, I would get a WHOLE candy bar to myself. I've been a charts and lists person ever since.

Caryl McAdoo, Age 2

Caryl McAdoo: Since I was an only child at two—actually until I was eight—I remember times spent with my mother. We’d ride a bus from our house in mid-town Dallas (Hester Street) to her parents’ home in far NW Dallas. But it isn’t the ride I remember as much as the walk to the bus stop. I have no idea how far we had to go, but Mama would always stop and let me pick up little treasures I’d find on the sidewalk or in the adjacent grass along our way. I still recall picking up a bluejay feather or a penny, sometimes a shiny button or broken bird’s egg. She’d stop and we’d examine it and she’d tell me about it.

Carole(2) w/brother &
Poppy.

Carole Brown: I remember so many times sharing memories w/both sets of my grandparents, and both had totally different personalities. Paternal grands were: Poppy and Big Mom. Poppy loved to sing and I suppose that's from whom I got my love to sing. I was an expressive child, using hand movements, and not sure at that age if I ever met a stranger.

Catherine Castle: One of my earliest memories was playing in a corner cupboard in the kitchen of the house I lived in when I was about 2. My mother couldn't believe I described the kitchen and where the cupboard was.

Deb Garland: Readers imagine characters in books, so I invite you to picture me as a two-year-old. My toddler photo resides in a hall closet on the mainland, about 40 nautical miles from where I sit typing at a sailboat chart table. Think honey blonde straight bangs and silky feather dusters, blue-gray eyes, and dimpled, rosy cheeks. I’m dressed in a white, short-sleeved blouse with lace-edged collar tucked beneath a deep green corduroy jumper. A smile completes the pose. Do you see me? One of my earliest memories is petting Patches, a stray Jack Russell terrier our family adopted, and sampling a dry dog food nugget. Definitely dry and tasteless. The experience curbed my appetite for his meals!

Elaine, Age ~5

Elaine Manders: The earliest memory I have was about my cat, Ole Tom. The gray tabby was my constant companion, allowing me to dress him in doll clothes and roll him around in my doll buggy. Ole Tom slept on the end of my bed, and one night I awoke way after mid-night to find him gone. I was terrified, convinced something terrible had happened to him. I couldn't have been more than four at the time, and I didn't understand when my mother explained that Ole Tom went out every night, and he'd be there when I awoke the next morning. Unable to console me, my mother got dressed and went out searching the neighborhood until she found the cat. That night I learned the great joy Jesus spoke of when a lost one is found. And it's also one of the sweetest memories I have of my mother.

Heidi, Age 2

Heidi Main: My earliest memory is probably doing cartwheels with my bigger sisters in the front yard. This is back when normal yards had clover and weeds along with fescue grass. We had huge maple trees in the front yard and I recall that my father tapped them to try to get syrup. I have no idea if he was successful, but I remember how much fun it was to watch him and to check every day for syrup. Was it because I was young or because times were different, but life seemed slower and less intense back then.

Jamin Baldwin: My earliest memory is of my father inflating his rubber raft and filling it with water. We used it as a kiddie pool. I can remember my Dad putting me in the water and putting my back against the side so I wouldn't fall over. My mom came outside and said. "Mark, her diaper was dirty..." I was only 10 months old. My mom still can't hardly believe that I remembered something so young.

Jennifer Fromke: Tasting soap at age 3. I had heard my mother threaten to wash our mouths out with soap, and I didn't understand why that was a bad thing. So I sneaked into the bathroom and licked a bar of soap. I remember eating whatever I could get my hands on for the rest of the day, trying to get rid of that taste. Never wanted to cuss (once I learned the words) for fear of that taste in my mouth again.

Jodie Wolfe, Age 2

Jodie Wolfe: My earliest memory happened when I was in kindergarten. It was spring time when most of the snow had melted except where it had been piled up. After riding the bus to school a boy told the teacher I had ripped up his picture, which I hadn't. He had pushed me into a snow bank after getting off the bus and I told the teacher that. She didn't believe me and we went outside and I pointed to the snow bank and said, "There's your snow." I was appalled the teacher hadn't believed me.

Josette Downey: My earliest memory is standing in line to see Stars Wars 6th. I must have been about three.

Linda Matchett, Age 2

Linda Matchett: My earliest memory is when I got my tonsils out when I was 4 or 5 years old. I remember lying in the back of the car on the way home from the hospital. My throat was on fire, but there were promises of ice cream to be had! When I got home there was a large, wrapped gift from my grandparents that turned out to be a set of "around the world" dolls - each one was dressed in a different international outfit. And I ate lots of ice cream.

Linda Yezak: When I was four or five, we lived in an older, low-to-middle class neighborhood, and there was a ditch across the street from us that always seemed to have water in it. Mom would tie a square of bacon onto strings for my brother and me so we could go crawdad fishing. She wasn't the type to cook them, but it was always fun catching them. It was during these years I learned some of the crazy ditties I know. Mom and Dad were both professional singers before they married, and they knew a wide range of songs. "The Crawdad Hole" is only one of them. "There's a Hole in the Bucket," "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea," "The Chocolate Ice Cream Cone," and "Ain't We Crazy"--songs no one else seems familiar with still pop into my mind occasionally. Good times.

Norma Gail

Norma Gail: My earliest memory is of staying with my Aunt Norma. She never had children, so our relationship was really close because she took care of me when I was little and my mom was at work. I remember her kitchen with yellow 1950's vinyl and metal chairs. She used to take me next door to see her neighbor's cat, Fiddle. It was a big, black cat that I can see clearly sitting high on a shelf in the garage with its tail swishing. I am very allergic to cats and as a result, do not like them at all, but that memory has stayed with me for some reason. My aunt has Alzheimer's now, and we were talking about Fiddle the cat just the other day.

Shirley Raye Redmond, Age 2

Peggy Wirgau: Here’s my earliest memory. I hope people don’t think its too sad to share…I don’t feel that way at all. I was 2 and 1/2 when my dad died of a heart attack at the age of 44. My first memories are from his funeral. The first was when my mom picked me up to look at him, and the other was when I was climbing on chairs in a nearby waiting room, and people looking at me and smiling.

Susan Craft (2) in kimono

Shirley Raye Redmond: One of my earliest memories is pushing my baby Thumbelina doll around in a red-and-white striped doll stroller.

Susan Craft: My dad was in the military, so we lived in Japan when I was two. I remember a few things: the tune and some of the words to a Japanese children’s song; standing in a doorway when a minor earthquake hit the area we lived in; and the aroma of sukiyaki. My parents said I picked up the language quickly, as children tend to do, but I can recall only a handful of words.

Terri (2) & her grandma

Terri Wangard: Earliest memory. Oh dear. We lived on the bay shore of Green Bay during my first few years. I have vague memories of the feel of being peeled out of my smocked swimsuit that got tight when wet; or the sensation of being pulled in our little red wagon as, one by one, the four wheels went from gravel to pavement or vice versa. Clearer is when I was nearly four and my brother was born. My sister and I were hanging over the front seat to stare at this strange creature when we picked Mom and Jim up from the hospital. That will have to do!

Crystal, age 2

Crystal Barnes:  Yep, that's me on the left. Go ahead and laugh. I did. :) Wasn't I a cutie pie? ;) Heehee.
Well, I guess I'll finish off this round of reminiscing.
Hmm...I'd have to say one of my earliest, although not fondest, memories was from when I was about three. My mom and I had gone out to check on the calves in the cow lot. On the way back to the house, I crawled through the barbed wire fence and ripped open the bottom half of my leg. My mom said that is one noise she'll never forget. Miracle of miracles, I didn't get a single stitch, only some butterfly strips and a very long scar.

Alrighty, I promised y'all a surprise. Here it is! 

One of today's commenters will win an ecopy of Elaine Manders's Adela's Prairie Suitor to enjoy. (The winner to be announced in Monday's Weekly Windup.)

So, what's your earliest memory?