Another writing challenge from Kween of the Queens. This one asks that we describe or list things that happened to us before we turned ten years old. I'm only 22, so why is this making me feel old?

1. My earliest memory is from the age of 2, when I would sit at the dining room table rocking my chair back and forth. Mom kept saying that it wasn't a rocking chair, but I didn't listen. Soon enough, I'd leaned too far back and it fell over, taking me with it.

2. When my dad stayed out late at his Water District meetings, my mom let Christina and I stay up late. We would watch sitcoms that Dad would have thrown a fit over and we ate eggs and french fries.

3. Preschool was when I had my first crush. Actually, I liked all except one boy in preschool, and that boy was the only one who liked me. lol My biggest crush at the time was on Nick Harder, who told me that he wished I would get run over by a truck.

4. When I was in first grade, I made friends with a boy named Ben VanLom. He was in the class next door, and our class rooms had an adjoining cubby room in the back. One day after hearing so much about this kid, I decided that I ought to be friends with him. So I wrote him a letter, and after recess, went to the cubby room to give it to him. "Is Ben here?" I asked. A boy with curly brown hair and a giant grin stepped forward. "Here," I said, offering the letter. He just stood there while the other boys snickered behind him. Growing impatient, I dropped the letter on the floor and left. He called me after school that day, and we did become friends.

5. My first experience with peer pressure occurred shortly after the incident with Ben. You see, in first grade, girls and boys aren't supposed to be friends. Therefore, Katie and Ben must be sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. That's what all of the other kids kept saying. Not able to handle this sort of thing well, I eventually stopped doing things with him. It was actually pretty easy, since I was pulled out of public school after that year. It wasn't until college that I really learned how to have guy friends again.

6. Christina and I loved going downstairs at our grandparents' house (this continued past the age of 10), because grandpa Jack had set up a bar down there. At holiday gatherings, Christina, our cousin Zorah, and I would take turns playing bartender. We would order made-up drinks, but we'd end up drinking Shirley Temples.

7. Our family took its first real vacation to Disneyland in late October, with one of our last days there being my ninth birthday. When asked what my present was, my parents told me that the trip was the present. Knowing how unfair this was (Christina got to go, and it wasn't her birthday!), I cried. Eventually, my mom took me to the hotel gift shop and told me to pick something out. I got an Archie comic book.

8. With shock and a lot of swearing on my mom's part, we learned that our family of four would be expanding to include one more. My parents hadn't been trying to have another child, and thus you have my mom's swearing at the nurse. I can no longer imagine our family without my wonderful little brother, Jerry. My sister was 11 and I was 9 when he was born.

9. Christina and I loved having our friends over and going around our neighborhood giving out "Have a Nice Day" cards that we'd made. I was always put in charge of delivery to the Moodys, who lived next door. I was the only one who could crawl below their balcony window without being seen and be quiet enough not to arouse their dalmation.

10. One afternoon, my half sister, Karen dropped by with a bombshell: she was going to marry her Jewish boyfriend, with whom she'd been living. Oh, and Dad was supposed to foot the bill. My dad decided to get drunk and yell, and threw such a fit that my mom took Christina and I to a motel for the night. I really thought that they were going to get a divorce at that point.

I know that plenty of other things happened before the age of 10, but I'm having difficulty remembering them. Thus, the end. :o)