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<\/a>And while it\u2019s true that she didn\u2019t have access to a warehouse full of baby necessities, she also had the kind of confidence only a person who helped raise three younger siblings and two other daughters would have.<\/p>\nFor instance, there is a photo of me as a child, sitting beneath an apple tree in Tacoma, Washington. If either of my kids sat under an apple tree, I would be madly obsessed with making sure they weren\u2019t going to be stung by a bee or bopped on the head by fallen fruit. My mom? She only has good memories of me enjoying the apples.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, there are times where I wonder how I survived my childhood.<\/p>\n
My son, Deacon, is starting to teethe. As such, we\u2019ve purchased a hundred different teething toys designed to calm, soothe and trick him into chilling out.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, well, you should try what we used,\u201d my mom said, peering at one of my brightly colored plastic tools before it was flung across the room by a fat, tiny, furious fist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that, Mom?\u201d I asked, feeling frustrated that she didn\u2019t just volunteer the information without the usual prompt.<\/p>\n
\u201cJerky.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWait \u2014 you gave me jerky \u2026 as a baby? To teethe?!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou loved it. Your grandfather couldn\u2019t believe how much you loved it. And it worked!\u201d she said before smugly adding, \u201cWe also gave you chicken bones.\u201d<\/p>\n
We sat there for a minute, staring at each other as I tried to figure out the joke.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t give me chicken bones,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we did. You loved that, too!\u201d she grinned, lost in what seemed to be among her favorite memories: me as a baby gnawing on beef jerky and chicken bones.<\/p>\n