Slate.com recently published an article on why memories from our 20s are, well, so memorable. But it's the subject of first memories that really intrigues me. The piece noted people tend to experience childhood amnesia until the age of 5 (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/01/reminiscence_bump_explanations_why_we_remember_young_adulthood_better_than.html).

My first memory decided to hang just into my fourth year. I was with my younger brother, Kenny, kneeling in front of a wall heater vent in the living room and dropping pennies into its grated maw, when my mother walked in the front door, a blanketed bundle in her arms. I remember breaking the news to Kenny -- `That's our little sister' -- then again dispensing a penny into the vent.

What's your first recollection as a child? Also, why might you think it's that event, experience or awareness that was the inaugural memory of your consciousness? Please, do share.