The Beginning

I was born on April 18th, 1993 to my mother, Gloria, and my father, Leonardo.

Both of my parents are Mexican immigrants, although both of them had been in the US for at least a couple of decades before I was born. I'm a little fuzzy on the details of immigration, because the laws really sound like people pull them out of their butts on site. They're both citizens now, so you can unclench your anti-immigration butt holes.

Ironically, my mother was visiting her family down Reynosa, MX because she wouldn't be able to visit them for awhile since I was about to be born and babies are hardcore needy. My dad was back home in Houston, working, as always, at the time of her visit. The part that's ironic is that my mother went into labor when she was crossing the border and being driven to the airport or whatever travel service she was gong to use to head back home. So, my aunt/cousin person, (she's the daughter of my mother's aunt. So, whatever that's called) who was driving her, immediately headed to the closest hospital, which happened to be a clinic in Hidalgo, TX. Naturally, my father missed my birth, and subsequently the first few weeks of my life, because like I said before, babies are needy little suckers. Also, laws.

I spent the first few weeks of my life surrounded by my aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends, and my grandfather. My mother has 11 siblings. Only 3 of them are male and only one of my aunts wasn't living in Reynosa, TX. My mother and I stayed and my grandfathers modest little home until my birth certificate came in. We had to wait for it, because we have all these silly rules confining us to certain sections of land separated by borders that are only figments of our imagination.

I was totally spoiled. Everyone adored me because I was not a fussy child. Needy, sure, I mean I was in a nice confined warm, wet, womb for 9ish months, and then all of sudden things were bright, cold, dry, and loud. I mean, I actually had to eat! What a turn of events that must be for babies.

I rarely cried when I was a baby, unless you screwed something up, like made me cold, or forgot to feed me. Otherwise I was a chill baby who loved being coddled by several random strangers who later turned out to be family.

Eventually, I finally made it home to my father and our house. I continued to be a quiet baby who very rarely cried, so that must have been heavenly for my parents. At least my mom. She's the second oldest, so you can imagine all the babies she's had to take care of over the years prior to me.

Unfortunately, my father's side of the family isn't as loving as my mother's family. They are rather distant, cold, and don't really know how to coddle anyone. Kind if sad, really. There was no constant attention put on me, which was fine. I spent a lot of quality time with my mother in my early life. Also sleeping, that's what baby Ell and I share a lot in common with sleeping everywhere and sticking to one place and position once we found the perfect place.

Next post I'll try to insert a photo of me sleeping on the top of our sofa's cushions. Don't worry I sleep like a rock. Both in the manner that I don't wake up to anything, even hurricanes but that's a story for later, and I barely move. At least in my early years and in my later years. I had a few restless years, but again a story for another time.

I was a very agreeable baby. I'm told I ate everything given to me and I loved my bottle. The only thing that I was not down with as a baby, were pacifiers. There was nothing passive about those things. They were creations full of lies and deceit. Like I said, I loved my bottle. I loved my bottle because I loved my milk. Guess what pacifiers are? Liars, because they contain no milk. I'm told I would suck the pacifier a few times and when nothing would come out I would spit that deceitful contraption out and eventually I'd outright refuse to have it anywhere near my mouth if there was not bottle attached to it. I imagine I had very strong feelings about pacifiers as a baby, so I will respect baby Ell's feelings and try to convey the strong feelings of betrayal that pacifiers held for me at that age.

Even as a baby I was a stubborn person when it came to things I felt very strongly about, like the abominations that are pacifiers. I secretly hope that when I have a baby, they'll also hate pacifiers. Knowing my luck, though, I'm sure they'll think pacifiers are the best thing to happen since warm blankets.

That's about all I can think about when it comes to the super early days of my life. I was a stubborn baby when it came to things I felt strongly about, but otherwise I was a calm baby who wasn't allergic to anything and was very agreeable.

Next time I'll talk about my years as a toddler which should include some fun photos.

Until then, thanks for reading!

Ell