I remember: popsicles and uninvited guests

Sometimes it makes me sad to think of all the friends Sir O is destined to leave behind and barely remember.  This seems to be the lot of oldest children around here. I didn't live in one place for long enough to grow up with anybody until I was nearly 8 years old.  (To military kids that's nothing - to Mr Renn who lived in the same house all his life, it's a big deal).  But sometimes it's a small world, and serendipity has been known to stop by.

My very earliest memories are from a short time when my parents lived in BYU married student housing.  My very first memory is of falling off of my Big Wheel tricycle.  I was 2 and 3 years old while we lived there. But associated with that whole era every other memory I have involves Danielle.  Apparently we were inseparable.

Memories from that early in life are necessarily non-linear.  We remember things the way we lived them, and I'm now keenly aware of what non-linear beings 2 and 3 year-olds are.  I mostly remember short and vivid moments.  I remember Danielle and I dipping our twin popsicles in cups of water, and wearing stick-on earrings.  I remember her mom giving me a blue pair of plastic clip-on earrings and thinking I'd won the lottery.  

My one and only memory that stretches long enough to have a plot is the time we wandered down near the playground and there was a birthday party going on.  We sort of casually invited ourselves to crash the party and got in line to play a game where you popped balloons that had candy inside.  Totally rational action for a toddler.  I can't remember whether we were found out by our parents, or just went home, but I do remember having pockets full of smarties from the birthday party of some kid I never knew.

About a month before I got married, one of the kids in a class I TA'd asked me if I knew of Danielle.  It turned out that we were at BYU at the same time and very nearly never knew it.  Somehow she'd heard of my name through this student of mine and ventured to find out whether I was the self-same Emily that had once been attached to her hip.  That was just cool, like God giving me a hug.

Then I got to follow her from afar as she had awesome adventures abroad while I atrophied in a desk job for the next 2 years.  

Then I got her wedding announcement and called my parents to share my excitement.  

And now, through the MIRACLE of blogging - I get to watch her family grow (again having awesome adventures abroad - I shall have to be a voyeur).

Pretty soon she'll have a 2-year-old of her own.

Life is just awesome like that.