Back when I was young and ready to learn I was fascinated by the brain, how it works and how it encodes memories. (I still am interested but too tired to try to learn much new these days.) I ended up studying psychology as an undergrad partially because of my interest in the brain. I ended up as a counselor instead of a researcher, but if I could design a study now, I would want to figure out a way to examine a toddler's brain and its ability to remember EVERYTHING.
Andrew recalls so many mundane details of our lives and retells it, particularly while we are driving that I am beginning to wonder if he is brilliant, or just has lots of extra room for memories that my brain is too clogged to hold. I noticed it when we were at Target one time and he pointed out where "daddy's iced tea" was located--diagonally across the store from where we were. I later learned that he had gone to Target with daddy once several weeks prior and they bought a bottle of iced tea from the refrigerator case Andrew had pointed out. Today as we drove to his pediatrician's office a few miles away he pointed out where daddy and he went to the car wash and he got a soft pretzel. He is only two, so the description is something like "car wash, daddy's car, in there, the car wash" he said as we passed a local church that had been doing a fundraiser car wash a few weeks ago. Chris had bought him a pretzel there, so he retold that part too. Then we passed the hospital where he was born. He told me it was the hospital and that daddy had taken mommy there in his car. The last time his daddy took me to the hospital there was when I gave birth, so I started to wonder if my two year old was having a paranormal experience or remembered being a fetus. Then Andrew added that we went in daddy's car to the hospital to see grandma J who had a boo-boo on her knee. That is when I realized he was recalling the one time we went to visit his grandma in a different hospital after she had knee replacement surgery--this was probably two months ago.
The list of examples of weird things my toddler recalls goes on, and someday I am going to sit down and write up a scientific study for toddler memory development. For now, we need to be careful of what we say or do with him in case he ends up ratting us out to someone who we don't want to know our whereabouts!
It has been a cold and dreary rainy day today. Andrew decided to wear his monkey rain gear. He had his two year old check up at the doctor's and is perfectly normal, as normal as toddlers go, I suppose. He did get the flu shot and the H1N1 nasal vaccine while he was there. I am hoping he does not have a reaction to either vaccine. He did well with the flu shot last year. He didn't even cry at the shot, but he was less than thrilled with the mist shot up his nostrils for the other one. He cried because he had to get dressed and go home. Seriously. We were all done and I just had to re-dress him, as he was in an undershirt, diaper and socks only for the exam. He flipped out and insisted he didn't want to get dressed and leave. So after having a conversation with the doc about dealing with temper tantrums (he said to walk away and ignore them) I had to wrestle my very strong toddler back into his clothes and force his boots on his feet so we could leave. He absolutely refused to put his coat on, so I gave up on it and covered him with a blanket in the car and cranked up the heat. He was fine by the time we got home and was excited to use his monkey umbrella in the rain.
Someone received their first shiner this week after hurtling himself over the side of the bathtub. Bad mommy was standing next to him. At least no stitches were involved, this time!
