Kids surprise you

I was blessed with a fabulous long-term memory. I can remember vivid details from my childhood. However, my short-term memory sucks. If you ask me what I ate today, I'll say, "Ummm...something...pizza...no, that was yesterday. Burgers! I had a turkey burger for dinner, and for lunch I had...dang, what did I have? Ummm, snap peas. And an orange. I think there was something else, I just can't remember."

My darling daughter is blessed with a similar memory. When you ask her what she did at school that day, she says, "I played." When you ask her what she ate for lunch, she says, "I don't know." My husband is a bit quizzical at these responses, but as someone who understands the short-term memory struggle, I get it.

The first week in July of 2011 I took Julia to her first movie in the movie theater. She had just turned 3. We saw Rango. It wasn't the best experience. First, she was only 24 pounds, and her weight couldn't keep her seat down, so she folded in half. Thus, I had to hold her. Second, it was too dark for her ("I'm scared"). Third, it was too loud for her (it was loud). Fourth, the movie was PG rated (to me there's not much of a difference between G and PG), but it was a bit more violent than she was probably ready for. All in all, she lasted 40 minutes before saying she wanted to go home.

Tonight we were perusing Netflix, and they had added Rango to the instant viewing selection. She remembered it! She remembered that she saw it with Mommy in the movie theater. She said it was loud, it was dark, there was a fish (I had forgotten that part), that she didn't want to go potty in the bathrooms there (correct), she identified plot points before they happened. It was kind of freaky that she remembered so clearly watching 40 minutes of this movie 9 months ago. She's not even four yet, so that's about 20% of her life ago.

Maybe this kid is paying more attention than I give her credit for.