I'm very aware of this and tend to examine my own memory critically while trying to avoid reinforcing some preconception I might have about them. I can clearly remember, for example :
- The exact look and shape of my feeding bottle.
- Starting baby food and good it was. I still remember the taste of the carrot and apple stuff.
- Being in my crib before being able to walk, by myself, just looking around, waiting for time to pass.
- Sticking poop on the bars of said crib. Dunno why I did that. It seemed fun.
- Our first cat (died when I was a year and a half).
- Receiving my first and second Christmas presents.
- Being brought to work by my grandma when she was keeping me (she retired when I was 1).
- The layout of my grandmother's kitchen that was redone when I was two.
- The day we spent at an attraction park when I was two and puking all over my aunt.
- The cotton cloth my mother used to wrap my butt with (I hated synthetic diapers), with the blue motifs drawn on it.
- Being laid on my back and having my ass cleaned. I really enjoyed that.
- The exact flour plan of my house, my school, my nanny's house, all the faces of the kids there, some of their names. The layout of the village. I left this place a few months after turning 3 and never went back.
All that stuff is stuff that's not documented at all and stuff I've told my relatives about, not the other way around.
It brings back another memory, from when I was 7 or 8, but that only makes sense now : we were doing a trip with kids from another school, incidentally kids I had been to school with when I was 4. I remembered them pretty well and I was quite happy to meet again two kids that had been my best friends at that time. They didn't seem to remember me at all.
That's impressive, sadly I don't recall any such moments when I was less than 5 years old. Just curious do you recall if you kept visualizing these memories over the years and hence maybe you still remember them so far?
Yeah man, when people say "your brain just made that up", it's like, no, this is stuff that wasn't suggested or "generated" and is verifiable (I love how many examples you have!) .. I especially relate to the "being in the crib" one. It took me getting a bit older to realize just how little other people remembered from their earliest years. Even today I have an uncanny memory for people and their names. My memory isn't so great in other areas, but still. Interesting stuff.
- The exact look and shape of my feeding bottle.
- Starting baby food and good it was. I still remember the taste of the carrot and apple stuff.
- Being in my crib before being able to walk, by myself, just looking around, waiting for time to pass.
- Sticking poop on the bars of said crib. Dunno why I did that. It seemed fun.
- Our first cat (died when I was a year and a half).
- Receiving my first and second Christmas presents.
- Being brought to work by my grandma when she was keeping me (she retired when I was 1).
- The layout of my grandmother's kitchen that was redone when I was two.
- The day we spent at an attraction park when I was two and puking all over my aunt.
- The cotton cloth my mother used to wrap my butt with (I hated synthetic diapers), with the blue motifs drawn on it.
- Being laid on my back and having my ass cleaned. I really enjoyed that.
- The exact flour plan of my house, my school, my nanny's house, all the faces of the kids there, some of their names. The layout of the village. I left this place a few months after turning 3 and never went back.
All that stuff is stuff that's not documented at all and stuff I've told my relatives about, not the other way around.
It brings back another memory, from when I was 7 or 8, but that only makes sense now : we were doing a trip with kids from another school, incidentally kids I had been to school with when I was 4. I remembered them pretty well and I was quite happy to meet again two kids that had been my best friends at that time. They didn't seem to remember me at all.