Your first house

We moved in when I was 10 weeks pregnant.  I did my best to 'decorate' a nursery.  Your dad was pretty set against anything too permanent, and I still hadn't convinced him putting a few nail hole in the walls was inevitable.  But, he traveled a bit.  So I did manage to frame a dozen or so books and hang them in your room, to go with your generic ABC bedding.  Most were my favorite children's books, with one of your dad's favorites for good measure.

We brought you home to our first house.  We were pretty scared and slightly shocked the hospital let us take you home, and at the last minute we had Grandma Hardcastle stay with us too -just to make sure we didn't break you the first night.

I worried non stop about the stairs and the rock around the fire place.  We bought the only gate available that was wide enough for our entryway and I bought a few huge pillows to save your from yourself around the fireplace.  It didn't help much.  There were very few places in your first house that you didn't test out with your head.  You fell down both sets of stairs, more than once.  Locked yourself IN the house (dad went to the neighbors house, climbed on the roof and into our 2nd story bathroom window).   You learned how to crawl and walk there.  You ate your first bite of rice cereal.  You made your first best friend between the ages of 3 and 4 and you and Max spent hours and days running in between your two houses.  We took first day of school pictures there -three years in a row.

You played video games in your first house and began what I can only assume will be your lifelong habit of climbing and jumping on everything within reach.  You practiced reading your first books here and it was the house you started to bring homework home to.

You welcomed two siblings home in your first house.  And you also got mad and tortured those same siblings as well.  You've eaten countless popsicles outside, thrown stuff down the window well, and left a permanent mark on the stucco with silly string left in the sun to bake.

It's been a good house, Hyrum.  I hope you will have a few memories of this place, because I know that I will.