Moving to Schererville

This picture was snapped in my grandparent's driveway the first week of October 1986 when we moved to Schererville. We visited my Grandpa and Grandma Nodland in Ankeny that week. My grandparents took this picture early in the morning as we loaded into the car to go to our new house. Dave was almost 2 years old and Abby wasn't born yet. I still remember that entire day like it was yesterday. And I'm still not a morning person.

Baby Book Photos, Part 3

OK, this is the last batch of photos from my baby photo album. Scanning is tedious and there's no way I'm going to scan everything. 

This was taken in the summer of 1980 at my great-grandma's farm in Clarion. My cousin Jenny was helping me feed a lamb in the front yard:

Now we'll fast-forward to Halloween that year. Halloween has always been just about my favorite time of year (and it's also my mom's birthday) and when I was a kid we always made a big deal out of it. This was the first year I was allowed to help with carving the pumpkins:

I was Max from Where the Wild Things Are, my favorite book back then:

My birthday!

Visiting a park in my mom's home town, Lake Forest, IL:

Christmas 1980:

Opening my Fisher Price circus train:

My "Computer Fire Engine," hahaha! Yeah, right. That's overselling it JUST A TAD. More like "Slowly-bumping-into-stuff-and-then-going-the-other-way-until-the-wheels-are-gunked-up-with-carpet Fire Engine." High-tech:

I got my own table and chairs!

Check out my Christmas loot. That wallpaper was loud, but it was covering walls that had been covered with automotive gloss black paint(!!):

Christmas dinner:

For some reason there are only a couple of photos from 1981. My mom used to take me to Hollywood Beach along Lake Michigan, just a few blocks from our flat:

Both of these photos are from Memorial Day 1981:

A few photos from 1982... This one was taken in Des Moines at the Botanical Gardens around Easter, I think. My cousin Jenny is sitting next to me:

We went camping with my Uncle Al and Aunt Carol and my cousins Matt and Chad in the summer of 1982 in Tomah, WI. That's me and Matt with my parents in the picture:

There were only two other boys in my neighborhood; one was a few years older than me (and he was way too cool for me) and the other was a few years younger (he was a toddler) and all the other kids nearby were girls... so nearly all of my friends were girls:

My mom's birthday cake. I'm pretty sure my dad didn't make that:

My Aunt Anna made this lion rug for me that year (I think it was a Christmas gift):

There's kind of a weird gap in my baby book, but here's some photo documentation of my existence in 1983. This was from Halloween:

My E.T.-themed birthday! Not sure why has has antennae:

I had 3 birthdays that year: one at home (see above), one at my grandpa and grandma Nodland's (I got a new suit... awesome):

... and one at my grandpa and grandma Brackin's:

My first day of 1st grade, 1984. I look a little worried:

School Halloween party 1984:

My 8th birthday in November, 1985:

Baby Book Photos, Part 2

Hanging out with my mom and playing with a puppet that she made for me, June 1979:

August 1979:

These next two pictures were taken at the Brackin's place in Oskaloosa. They lived on 22 acres of mostly wooded land and there was a creek that ran through it. Growing up I stayed with them several times and had so many adventures exploring those woods and building bridges to cross the creek.

September 1979: My dad took this shot at exactly the right moment!

I still have this Tonka dump truck on a shelf in my garage. It was a birthday present in November of 1979:

For Christmas in 1979 we went to my grandpa and grandma Nodland's house in Ankeny first and then celebrated Christmas at the Brackin's house the next day:

Brackin's:

My dad rockin' his Christmas sweater:

February 1980: Jammin' with some gigantic headphones! My dad had lots of vinyl.

Easter 1980: It looks we stayed in Chicago for Easter this year.

This picture of me wearing a wooden Sesame Street puzzle piece was from the spring of 1980:

That's not a microwave in the background, that's a TV. The kind that hummed and buzzed and had things like "rabbit ears" and "vertical hold" and had separate knobs for things like "VHF" and "UHF." Nobody even knows what that is anymore... kids these days. It was hard work to watch something back then:

Baby Book Photos, Part 1

While I was at my parent's house I found my old baby photo album (that I hadn't seen in many years) and decided to bring it home to scan some of the photos. It's been a blast to look at, although there have been a few cringe-worthy photos (which will not be seen on this blog, heh) that I could do without.

Here's what I've scanned so far...

I was 3 days old when this picture was taken at the hospital before coming home:

December 7th, 1977, almost three weeks after I was born:

December 26, 1977, a little over a month after I was born. My mom is rockin' some kind of sweater in this picture, but I can't quite figure out what's up with the tree and the person under it:

My Grandpa and Grandma Brackin and my Aunt Anna came to visit:

My 3 month-old picture taken at Sears. Right before the photographer took my picture, I spit up all over the navy blue outfit. My parents were determined to get my picture that day, so they took the outfit into a restroom and washed it by hand and wrung it out and waited for it to dry, then they came back and got this shot:

Easter morning, 1978:

Spring of 1978:

August and September 1978:

My first birthday in November of 1978:

And Christmas. My mom made that stocking and she still has it:

February 1979:

Family snapshot from May, 1979:

This photo was dated from June, 1979, but I'm not sure what the occasion was. That's my grandpa and grandma Nodland's Nova in the background and my uncle Al's Pacer, so it must've been some sort of family get together:

My dad used to take me on bike rides all the time and he would deliberately ride through lawn sprinklers in people's yards as we rode along, getting us soaked. He says that I used to laugh hysterically and insist on riding through the water again. Also, both of the cars in the background were ours and the blue car was brand new. He must've been jumpstarting the old Ford.

OK, back to scanning...