Chapter 3 - My history (the early years)

I can't remember everything about my first five years, so I interviewed my mum, dad, nanna and grandad for this chapter.

I was born on 24th October, 2002 in the old King George V Hospital. I was one of the last babies born there, in the hospital's last two weeks. I spent a week in hospital then went home with my mum and dad to our small flat in Stanmore. It was perfect for me, under the planes' flight path and right beside a railway line. I loved to watch the trains go by crying out "Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch!" over and over again excitedly. I loved vehicles!

Also, I liked going on walks in the pram and three times every day we would go for a walk through the streets to the park, anywhere. My nanna says that one of her biggest memories of me when I was a baby was that I needed to go for lots of walks. She would often take me to various parks around Stanmore. She remembers I liked the pigeons. Although I cannot remember I am sure I liked it!

I loved Thomas the Tank Engine stories and when I was two, I knew James The Red Engine by heart! I also liked puzzles and my Grandad said I was very, very, good at them.

When I was 1 1/2 we moved to 15 The Boulevarde, in Lewisham. It was a great house for me with a big backyard with a swingset and later on a sandpit. It was an old house with steps leading to the door and one storey. It was right next door to our church, Petersham Baptist. Not long after we arrived we made friends with our nextdoor neighbours Ellie and Nicholas, two small children about my age.

Ellie and Nicholas were 2 smart kids with a fish pond in their backyard and like me, some Thomas the Tank Engine trains and tracks. We loved talking to each other over the fence between our houses and having playdates with eachother.

Our next door neighbours

Me using my toy saw to try and make a gate in the fence to our neighbours' back yard

 I loved trains and track toys and now have a massive collection of them for visitors to our house and for Lydia.

In November, Mum was highly pregnant with Becca but something rather bad meant a trip to the hospital on Becca's due date... not for Mum though!

Now my cot had an alphabet wall hanging hanging above it from a sharpedged metal curtain rod. One day I pushed my finger into the curtain rod. It was a tight fit and I couldn't quite pull my finger out again. Eventually I twisted my finger around to try and get it out. A big mistake.

Mum rushed into my room as she suddenly heard me start screaming and wailing. The sharp edge of the curtain rod cut deep into my finger and it was bleeding horribly.

We quickly drove to the hospital and rushed inside. By the time the doctor saw me I had stopped crying. This was a bad sign. If  one of my nerves had been cut I would have lost all sense of feeling in my finger, even when it healed. That would be very bad. Anyway, whatever had happened I needed plastic surgery.

The surgeons gave me general anaesthetic and stitched me up. They found out the cut had just missed the nerve. Thank goodness for that!

Anyway we drove home. The next day, Mum discovered I had taken off the bandages and pulled out one of the stitches! So, we drove to the doctor's to get it stitched again.  We drove home with my stitches fixed up and a bandaid, instead of bandages.

Before long, mum was driving me up to the hospital again, I had pulled out ALL the stitches, and pulled off the bandaid.

This time the doctors put a massive glove of bandages onto my entire hand and forearm. I didn't pull it off this time!

A couple of days later Becca was born in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. I really don't like those TV shows where somebody has a baby sister and gets jealous because he doesn't get as much attention. This never happens to our family and I've always loved having a baby sister. Becca was no exception at all! If you want to see how I much I care for her, here is a picture that is 7 or 8 years old.

Something I also liked when I was little was going to zoos. We were zoo friends at Taronga a couple of times and once we went out to Dubbo to visit the zoo there. I also enjoyed going to museums and aquariums. I still enjoy all those things today.  

A year after Becca was born, I celebrated my third birthday. This might be my earliest memory, but some of it might not count as a lot of it I remember from a film of the day. My cake was a train cake with many delicious carriages.  I got some great presents including a green bulldozer which I still have. It was a great day!

 At that age I liked walking around church after the service with the Grandad pretending to be Ratty and Moley from The Wind In the Willows, which I like a lot! One one occasion I visited the Botanic Gardens and saw a performance of The Wind In the Willows.

Sometimes on holidays and for day trips we went on bush walks. I have always liked these, seeing all kinds of animals and plants. I used to take a magnifying glass with me, so I could inspect the trees more closely!

I liked going to the church playgroup which was run by my Nanna. I cannot remember it but I know it was very fun!

Now at the age of three you would expect me to go to preschool but I didn't go until I was four. Why, well firstly there were no places at the nearest preschool and secondly as dad was working full time as a lecturer at Morling College now we were getting ready to move to North Ryde the following year.

Soon the time came for this to happen. We moved to a small one storey house at 11 Orana Street, North Ryde, just one house away from Pindari Park, a great little park with swings, a see-saw, a slide and lots of trees. It is a great park!

As we had just moved house, we needed to find a new church. There was, believe it or not, a church right behind our house in North Ryde but we ended up going to Macquarie Baptist, right next to my Dad's work, Morling College.

Soon, in 2006 I turned  four, Becca turned two and Elsie was born. It was time for me to go to preschool.

It didn't start that well. I was a rather naughty boy back then and as Becca went with what I said in games, I wasn't good at playing with other kids. Anyway what happened was I hit a kid over the head with a toy dinosaur.

I really enjoyed preschool especially the incursions which happened every now and then. Once it was some police, once a drummer, once a policeman and my favourite one by far, a man who brought a possum, a tawny frogmouth, a python, a frog, some lizards and a baby Saltwater crocodile. We got to touch all of them (except the frog)!

Anyway, I made some good friends, AJ (the boy I hit over the head), a kid called Nathan and another kid called Jacob.

Well, soon I graduated from St Johns Preschool to North Ryde Ryde Public School, but that's another story...