first child privileges

I'm a big believer in all the birth-order personality trait stuff. I'm the oldest child in my family, and I am pretty much a textbook firstborn. (Have no idea what I'm talking about? I'm sure you could Google it, or here's a book I really liked that explores the idea) But I'm not here today to talk about how intelligent and bossy I am.

I'm here today because it's WAY BACK WHEN-sday. Holla!! Since everyone seemed to enjoy seeing adorable pictures of me as a baby so much last week, I figured...why not go for Round 2?

You see, as a firstborn child-- and a super cute one, at that-- there are lots of pictures of me. LOTS. And this was from 1982/83...not even the age of digital pictures when EVERYONE can take millions of pictures of their kids doing boring things. My parents were like, forerunners in the "over-photograph-your-child" movement. Because that's what you do for your firstborns. You document their every breath, because in all likelihood, no one has ever done that before. Or at least that's what it seems like when I browse through the piles of photographs of myself as a baby. My poor brother and sister...I think they got like, a handful of pictures BETWEEN the two of them. And then there's the Shrine to Erika. Well, what can I say. I'm special!!

Anyway...the reason I'm going on and on (and other firstborns, jump in here and tell me I'm not the only one who has noticed a disproportionate volume of photos of themselves as babies...) is because I wanted to find a pic or two of Mattie as a baby to share with yall as well. The only problem is, Mattie has the unfortunate luck of NOT being a firstborn. So by the time he was born, his mama was also trying to chase around a 2 year old, and...well, poor Mattie just didn't have his every move documented.

And actually, this is all theoretical. He very well MAY have piles of pictures. I just don't have access to them. In OUR house, there are like...4 pictures of Matt as a child. And in most of them I really can't even tell if it's Matt or one of his two brothers, because they all look(ed) the same. So I am just taking a lot of liberty with my birth-order-mumbo-jumbo here and assuming that's the reason we don't have many pictures of him. Or maybe he's just not a picture hoarder like me. No one really knows.


So with all THAT said (man, can I preface a picture or can I PREFACE A PICTURE?!?!) I would like to present you with today's Way Back Whens-day: The Episode Where Erika Looks Super Adorable and...Well, Here's the First/Funniest Picture I Could Find of Matt.

Here's me, all bedazzled in Mexican cuteness at my Meme's house in Texas. Ruffled dress? Check. Sombrero? Check. Ruffled socks? Check. Patent leather Mary Janes? Check. Awesome bowl cut I rocked for the first 10 5 years of life? Check.

(Note: I just thought of an advantage to NOT being the first-born daughter. Better haircuts. My sister, born 4.5 years after me, was NEVER subjected to a bowl cut. Evidently my parents did learn something from looking back at all those pictures of me...) 

And...here's Matt. I tried to find a "theme" for our pictures, and I guess that hats and bowl cuts are what we have in common here. I asked Matt to tell me a little something about this picture and he said "um...it was an art project." and that's all I got from him, so there you have it, folks! Matt wearing his art project, circa age 12.

Now, to be fair...when I was digging through pictures (of myself, of course) today...I must admit, not every picture I came across was quite as flattering as the ones I've been posting. Although I was a pretty darn cute baby and toddler, I didn't age gracefully through elementary and middle school. So here's the question: What kind of pictures do you want to see? Next week, I'll go with whatever you want. Cute or embarrassing? I have a super awesome one that involves a fanny pack. And a lot involving band uniforms. And a lot with shoulder pads. And everything before 1997 involves humongous plastic eyeglasses. Ugh. It's THOSE years that I wish my parents hadn't been so generous as to over-document with pictures!

So, let me know what you want for your eye-candy next week. And also, I think everyone should do a Way Back When-sday themselves, because it's fun. And if you're a first child, then it will make it seem like all your parents' frantic picture-taking wasn't for naught. That is all.