Childhood memories

Tonight I was making a post on the discussion board for my online class regarding memory. The question asked us what our earliest childhood memory was. After thinking for a bit, I have a very vivid memory that can't be from when I was much more than 3 years old. Dad would leave his boots beside the couch, and one night I decided that I wanted to wear Daddy's cowboy boots. Being 3, and very short legged that of course required that the boots be scrunched down for my feet to touch the sole. With the boots all the way up to my hips I remember falling down and laughing with Jason over and over.

In my class, most of the research points to the fact that most long-term memory isn't formed until a child is around 36 months, and at that point even, it requires strong emotional associations to recall the memory from "storage".

This just gets me thinking about what Iain's first memory will be. Obviously he isn't going to remember anything from this time in his life, or for quite some time, however this is the reason Mommy is taking so many pictures, so that I can do the remembering for him. Will his first true memory be a birthday, Christmas, or maybe a simple day at the park? I just hope and pray that his earliest memories are associated with good things and not negative emotions. Maybe that first time that he goes fishing with daddy, or the first time he hits a baseball with mommy, who knows what it will be, but I can't wait for that conversation we will have years down the road of what his first memory was.