THE GOOD BITS - PART ONE
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My brother's birth 
I was just past three years old and a bit confused - I knew something unusual was happening but wasn't sure what (apparently I'd been told in detail but hadn't really understood).  It was unsettling having Grandma get my breakfast when Mummy always did that - and Grandma wasn't doing things in the right way !
Also, there were strange people upstairs, Mummy was still in bed and I wasn't allowed to see her.
Then as I finished eating, Grandma said I could go up now.  I ran into the bedroom and Mummy said
"There;s your new brother !"  There was a box-like cot-bed by the window - I ran over to it and there was
a small leg waving in the air as a tiny person looked up at me, as fascinated as I was.
Wow !  Dolls never interested me again.  Mum never did find out who taught him to kick all the water out of the baby-bath onto the carpet !

Having a baby gerbil sleep in my hand
In our teens, my brother brought a couple of gerbils home as pets.  Owing to unreliable sex-determination by the pet shop, we ended up with  a population explosion - did you know gerbils are sex maniacs ?  At one point, something went wrong and one of the females started to eat her not-quite-weaned litter, so we had to separate the babies and hand-feed them with bits of pulped fruit.  The babies, probably shocked by  their sudden removal, stayed huddled together, so one afternoon I picked one up to feed it.  Crouched in the palm of my hand, it was frightened at first, but nibbled bits of vegetable, then sniffing my fingers, peered between them, relaxed, curled up and fell fast asleep in the palm of my hand.