One of my earliest memories is of our big red shoebox-on-wheels van getting its tape deck replaced. It's kind of a strange event for my memory to single out, but there it is. We had to get it replaced because my little sister Teresa fed it pennies. She had done this before - one of my other earliest memories is of my dad fishing out pennies from the tape deck using a piece of tape on the end of a pencil.
It must be a kid thing, because lately Miriam's favorite activity is feeding the underside of our TV stand various DVDs from our collection. And it is so darn hard to get them out of there. You can see in the picture that it is a very small space beneath the TV stand. She pushes DVD after DVD in there until they are all jammed up against each other. The only way to get them out is to clamber over the speakers, balance precariously behind the TV, and try to snatch them up using a piece of tape on the end of a wooden spoon. I usually find myself performing this task, or asking Jeremy to do it, on my way out the door to the library to return an almost-overdue DVD.
It will be nice when she grows weary of stashing our DVDs under there. But I'm sure she'll think of something just as aggravating to replace it.
