Maryann Scearce's Baby Book Pages 5

I love a well kept baby book. It really is a treasure, and a treat for your child, as well as for future generations, to get a good peak at the past. I do wish that people wrote in them more. However, I do know why most of them are so truncated. When that little baby is born, you bring it home, and your entire life is turned up-side-down. You don't get enough rest, from all the fussing and fuming, of the unhappy spouse, whose had his sleep patterns modified, and then, you have to deal with the baby. Plus, the house work has still to be done, and after all of that, who feels like sitting down and keeping a memoir, on top of it all?!

That first baby is so new, and exciting, that it is usually the only one, that gets a well filled out book. By the time, two, three, and even four comes along, there is just no time for anything. The newness has worn off, and the mother is worn to a frazzle. If you happen to be number five, of eight, as I am, you are sunk. You will be lucky, to even get your picture taken, and future generations, will only have to go on, a couple of ragged edged snapshots.

Maryann's very first creeping, occurred when she was 9 months old. She was at home, in the kitchen, of the Scearce house on Huskey Rd., in Mosier. She had been scooting around, since she was eight months old, but this time she actually crawled, to get to her toys. Now why is it, that we will always record, things like this, but you never see recorded, all of those times, you had to rescue baby from eating some confounded little thing, dropped or crawling on the floor?! Like the ancient bean, from last weeks bean salad, or that nasty little sow bug, that you caught them with?! I swear sometimes, babies think that the floor, is their very own smorgasbord. The minutia they can find, is very astounding, and sometimes even scary.

Grandma's first step was also, at her home, with her grandparents Harry & Anne Scearce, in Mosier. She was standing at the window, and bravely took a step over to a chair. Unfortunately there is no date, so we don't know exactly, when this exciting first step occurred. We do know it was after 9 months.

Sadly, we do know, exactly when she had her first tumble. It happened on Dec 20th, 1924, when she was ten months old. She was in her "Taylor Tot, she tipped it over & bumped her head. How awful for her, but guess what, they didn't sue the company, and there was no recall of the Taylor Tot either. I guess people expected baby, to learn not to tip her toy over, instead of putting her in a padded cell. What audacity!

Ah ha! So that is the name, of the wickedly dangerous contraption she is driving! It was called a Taylor Tot. It does look, like it would be an easy thing to tip over, or run off the edge of the porch, for that matter. But I'll bet she had a blast riding it. I wonder if the picture was taken, before or after the bump?! She doesn't look very happy in this picture, does she?!

Well it didn't slow her down, too much, because she is walking, soon after thirteen months. Now why would you want to walk sooner, when you could just zip around on your Taylor Tot, bumping into things, and running over people's toes, or maybe the cats tail?!