Every family has those little anecdotal stories that sets them apart. Stories you tell amoungst friends, at parties or as you sit in a bar drinking a pint or two.
Before I had a family of my own, my mothers favourite stories to tell were mostly about my birth - a crazy family legend that got more and more gory as it got told. I was something of a large baby (ten pounds out of a barely 5 foot woman!) and true to my "do nothing halfway" style, was practically born in a cab less than one hour after he water broke.
Or she told folks of the time an entire shelf and television fell on my sister when she was about four years old. Even I can still remember what it was like to see a piece of her should bone through the gash.
And, um, sometimes she would mention about that time I lit my sister on fire, but we won't go there tonight.
Now, I have four children of my own. I would be purposely coy if I told you we didn't have some doozeys of our own.
Here's just a few:
- When Erin, now 11, was about 6 weeks old, she had a hair wrapped so tightly around her toe, it needed surgery. We figured it out after a night of extreme crankiness, more so than usual for this colicky baby. It was one of the most surreal things we've ever had happen. Just plain odd. Apparently it's pretty common and CHEO sees a few cases a month!
- Again Erin. When she was 3 years old she caught her finger in the mechanism of our patio door nearly chopping off the tip of her finger. It was literally hanging on by her nail bed. More surgery for this little pumpkin.
- When Meghan was born she had so much hair that the nurses kept coming in to have a look at this baby. They all told me she would lose it, but I kid you not, I braided her hair at her first birthday party.
- Alternatively, Kristyn was so bald, we had to put sunblock on her head. She had no hair until she was over three years old.
- When Alex was a baby up until he was almost 3, he had seizures that we never quite figured out. Two were febrile, but two had nothing to do with fevers at all. Oh, and I've mentioned this before but he spent days in the hospital with a rare and very oddly named heart condition. Those are necessarily funny, but I tell those stories a lot.