Memory Games

The moment I gave birth the entire area in my brain that used to hold memories deteriorated. I can barely remember what we did last week much less memories from high school or college. It's rather sad but this is why they started adding DHA in organic milk, right?
Every day I am more and more impressed with Bean's memory. People have always told me that kids have amazing memories, but I never thought that it would be that of a toddler Einstein. "Look, it's like your old car!", Bean points to a black SUV as we're driving down the freeway. "No, sweetie, mine was silver, not black", I said smiling at the attempt. "No mommy, up there in front of the truck." Good lord, she WAS right.

There have been numerous studies, reports, and articles written that say the key to improving/keeping your memory strong is repetition. This is why kids like to play the same games a million times, sing the same songs until they are blue in the face, and hear the same books read to them over and over - to the point that you are ready to accidentally let the dog eat them.

"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR circles", she exclaimed as she lined up the bracelets on the floor. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR squares", she added. She looked up at the daybed and counted 4 pillows and 4 dolls with the same vivacity, and then stacked 4 blocks on the table beside her; then quickly knocked them down. "Curious little child", I thought and smiled at her idiosyncrasy. The day went on as usual but for some reason she was stuck on the number four. She demanded 4 more minutes of play time, 4 more cookies when I had already given her two, and 4 episodes of Dora. During dinner this same manic behavior continued. She only wanted 4 chicken strips, 4 sliced carrots, and 3 sips of milk with one final long sip that emptied her glass.

"You are so silly today, mama!" I casually said to her. "Why? Why did you say that?", she replied. I explained how I observed her fascination with the number four and wondered why she never counted any higher. "Team Umizoomi!", she said. At this point she started singing the theme song to the Nick Jr. show that comes on every morning at 10:30 {which happens to coincide with Bean's morning snack and Ladybug's second feeding & diaper change in which the process lasts about 30 minutes}. Embarrassingly, this is when I had to explain to my husband that it's a show that I allow her to sometimes {ok, everyday} watch as I'm feeding the baby. I had heard that song a million times but I didn't know that SHE knew the words - they count to four in the intro, by the way.

Repetition, repetition, repetition wins the day.