Like a steel trap

Do you kids ever frighten you?

I don't mean hiding in their room and jumping out of the closet, I mean scaring you with what they know and remember?

Miss K has a mind like a steel trap. The information goes in, and does not come out. She files it somewhere in there for recollection at a moments notice.

Frightening on its own level.

Take this week for example. After a trip to the clinic we find out that the poor kid has an ear infection. Mild, but still some antibiotics are needed to make sure it goes away.

She will complain for 3 damn days about a hangnail she had 2 weeks ago, but just mentions in passing from time to time that her ears are sore, but that's another story.

After Miss K woke up in the wee hours of the morning the other day. 5:20 to be exact. She was complaining rather profusely now that inside her ear hurt so we told her that we'd be going to the clinic later in the day so they could check things out.

We have been to this clinic exactly once in her life. Our family doctor retired 6 months ago so we had to make the switch to a nurse practitioner clinic.

We did  a small tour and meet and greet one evening in March and that is the last we've ever been there with Miss K. (I'm not complaining, she's a healthy kid)

Upon hearing the news we'd be going to the doctor. She asked if we'd be in the fire truck room, because that is the one she'd like to be in.

I got a blank stare on my face and said I didn't know. I honestly was thinking that she'd seen something on TV about kids going to the doctor or hospital and they'd been in a room like that.

She asked me then what the other room at the clinic was because she couldn't remember and that's when the light bulb finally went on in my head.

The clinic has 2 rooms geared for kids, one with a fire engine bed and one with a train bed.

Dear God, how did she even think of that?? The things that get imprinted on those young minds blow me away.

I guess she pulled the almost identical conversation with Big C later in the day when he picked her up from the sitter. He said it took a little longer for him to clue in, but he had the same reaction. How in the hell does she come up with this stuff?

We're figuring if her memory stays as sharp, she will be very useful in the future. We are not young parents, with both Big C and myself being in our early 40's and our memory not what it used to be.

She can remember where we left our sunglasses, remind us to take medication, and eventually tell us to put our underwear on the inside of our pants etc…

I guess its a lesson to be learned and one that I've always subscribed to. Never, ever, ever make a promise to your kid that you don't intend to keep. Because that little pickle head will remember it till the day you die!!

Til next time…use it or lose it…your brain that is