What's your earliest childhood memory? Is it possible my niece has one from when she was in diapers?

[Skald the Rhymer]

This thread is obviously half factual inquiry, half pointless poll.

Here's a little background on the factual inquirty part of this thread. A couple of my young relatives--a niece, "Nicole," and a cousin, "Kat"--came over to Rhymer Manor the other night, along with Kat's year-old daughter. I love babies, so I spent not a little time with the little one in my arms, singing to her. One of the songs I sang was Tom Lehrer's Element Song. Nicole smiled broadly when she heard me singing that song; she claims she remembers me singing it to her when she was about two years old. Kat called bullshit on that, claiming that Nicole must have heard me singing it to one of the younger cousins when she was older and conflated the memory.

Though I'm inclined to think Kat is right, a few things give me pause. I'm certain I would have sung that song to Nicole when she was a baby; I was 16 and still living with my parents when she was born and frequently babysat for her mother. But six years passed before I had another niece; I was in my senior year of college and living elsewhere. I didn't spend nearly as much time with that niece when she was a baby; I can't recall ever singing that song to her in Nicole's presence.

Anyway, back to the thread questions. Is there any chance that Nicole has a valid memory from the age of two or so? And what are you earliest childhood memories?

[Zuul]

My earliest memory is of having my diaper changed in my crib. No, no, that isn't some crazy "I can remember the womb!" claim. It really is my earliest memory and it makes for an odd one. My mother says I was potty-trained around two and so it must have been close to that time because I can remember my embarrassed thought process of not wanting to wear diapers. My older sister was nearby and I was looking at her, wanting to be a big kid like she was.

[jali]

My earliest is riding on my horsie, "Old Paint" (a Christmas gift). I was about 2 years old. (Old Paint rocked and bounced - I can still remember his smell.)

I want another one!

[Taumpy]

My earliest memories are from about 3. My half sister is considerably older than I am and she babysat me when I was that age. I remember sitting on the floor in my niece's room, watching her sing "Material Girl" and asking what that meant. I don't remember the answer, but she was 11, so I'm sure it wasn't too well informed.

It's certainly possible to remember things from that age, but for myself there's a lot that I'm not sure if I remember because it's my own memory, or enhanced by the videos, audio tape recordings, and pictures from that time. My parents did a lot of recording everything. I chose the example above because that is definitely my own memory.

[The Original An Gadaí]

Skaldy, FWIW I have memories (verified in so far as you can) from before I was two. I might have been 20 months. I have several that I'm not sure which is the earliest. The reason we can date it is because I was brought to my folks' new shop where an electrician was working. This was sometime in 1983. I wasn't two until November of that year.
Talking to other people plenty don't have memories until they are 4 or 5 but I have lots from sub-4 and fairly clear recollection of countless stuff after that.

[What Exit?]

I have some memories from when I was almost 3. My limited understanding of this is that what I really have is mostly memories of the memory. I am remembering stuff I remember from when I was say 5-6 and then reinforced later. I also understand that for most people memories really start taking only after 30 months of age. All such early memories are of course suspect.

My memories are being really little, maybe not even 2½ yet and wandering into my mom’s room bored and she was playing solitaire. My next to memories I can place in time were of Mickey Mantle day July 4th 1969 and the first Moon landing shortly after that was on July 20th, 1969. I was not 3 yet. I have some memories, of this time but I cannot be sure of the dates. I remember Sesame Street going on the air and loving it and a lot else from late 69. I was three at this point. I have a real sharp divide for when I was 4 and almost 5. That is when we moved from the Bronx to New Jersey. So I know which memories are from before then but most of these would be when I was 3-4 years old.

[hatesfreedom]

I don't have much to add, I think I've lost more memories than I've kept. A product of living like an idiot for so long. I think my earliest memory is looking up at my mother in the kitchen, from what I can describe of our surroundings she thinks it's from when I lived in Fredericksburg which would make me about 3. My coolest early memory is building a snow fort with my sister when were around 5. We called the snow fort Africa.

[Sarahfeena]

I remember a lot of things very vaguely, but the first concrete memory where I can pin down my age is my dad coming home from the hospital to tell my brothers and me that we had a new baby sister. I was almost 5 at the time. Some of the vague memories prior to that involve little spats with the boys over whether we were going to get another brother (boo!) or a sister this time (yay!)

[Orual]

I remember things from when I was around 2, or maybe a bit less. I don't remember when I was moved from the crib to a regular bed, but I have crib-related memories.

[Cluricaun]

My earliest memory is probably around two as well, maybe just a tad older because we were still living in Iowa and we moved to L.A. not long after my brother was born in November of 1980. I was outside with my mom playing with snow and clearly remember a bit of awe that when I dropped the garden hose sprayer (the pistol looking kind) into the snow it make a perfect outline of the sprayer, which for some reason really impressed proto-me. I also vaguely remember falling down the stairs and cracking my head open, which happened a month or two earlier, but that's more a memory of sensation than a clear recollection of events.

[Feirefiz]

I have a few memories from shortly before I was three where I can establish the timeframe reasonably well. Those are just very brief scenes or mere images. From three on I have many more and more detailed memories.

[Fink-Nottle]

I remember a lot of things very vaguely, but the first concrete memory where I can pin down my age is my dad coming home from the hospital to tell my brothers and me that we had a new baby sister. I was almost 5 at the time. Some of the vague memories prior to that involve little spats with the boys over whether we were going to get another brother (boo!) or a sister this time (yay!)

And what a frickin' awesome baby sister you got! However one with very little memory of anything. My earliest memories are probably from when I was 3 or so. My mom went back to school and I had to spend the day with one of three babysitters (grandma and two of my mom's friends). I can remembering simple things like sitting on a babysitter's lap as she typed and thinking what lovely nails she had, and how I hated her jackass son who wouldn't let me play with a certain toy; and I vividly remember things that happened while I was with my grandparents. The odd thing is my strongest memories are with my grandparents who I stayed with the least, and then the next strongest are with the woman who I stayed with the next least, but I have no memories at all of time with the women who cared for me the most.