Sunday, February 7, 2010

Maybe I need a personal assistant...

As with many kids, Cooper has a high tolerance for watching the same TV show or movie over and over and over again. We go in spurts with movies. He will lock onto one and watch it every chance he gets for a week straight. He will decide that he wants to watch nothing but Max and Ruby episodes one week, and the next week it will be back to back Dinosaur Train episodes.

What is funny is watching him watch things. This weekend has been an all Finding Nemo weekend. We have had this movie for two years, and he has watched it many times before. But this weekend, it is like he is memorizing it. He sits there, with his toy diver and shark, acting out the movie and saying the lines he knows. There is a scene where the teacher of all the little fish, a sting ray, is singing a song about the zones of the sea. It has a lot of fairly complicated words, most of which I can't catch, but Cooper will hum along with it until he gets to the part that goes "Sea weed is good, sea weed is fun, it makes its food from the rays of the sun" and then he sings along. Cracks me up.

Cooper's older brother Nick was famous for this kind of thing too, and I have a brother who has been known to watch movies and TV shows A LOT and memorize lines. I am not that good at remembering lines. Bob is, but I am not.

I can't even remember when birthday parties are. Cooper was invited to one yesterday, and after I remembered on Friday that the party was the next day and we didn't have a present yet, I still managed to get the time wrong. I was CONVINCED it was at 3:30 in the afternoon. Turns out it was at 11am. We were at ToysRUs at 11am, buying a little stuffed dog that comes in its own carrying bag. The little girl in question has no pets, and she loves our dogs, in theory at least, she has never actually met them in all their growling glory, so I thought a stuffed animal that comes with its own purse to carry it in would be funny. At least it doesn't make any sound. Toys that make noise should never be given as presents if you still want to be friends with the parent of the child.

Anyway, after I logged onto my email and checked my calendar, at 2pm, and was reminded that in fact the party happened several hours ago, I called and owned up to it. Thank GOODNESS I figured it out before I showed up at their house with Cooper and a present all ready for a party at 3:30. OY.

But this is what I do. I remember that I have an appointment, but I get the day or time totally wrong. I try to use date books and the calendar on my phone, but even with that, I can get it all wrong. I am compulsively on time, I just might have the WRONG time. This might explain my obsessive rechecking of itineraries when traveling. It is one thing to miss a birthday party, another to miss a flight.

2 comments:

Chip said...

You are not the only one to remember parties and appointments on the wrong day and or time. I'm notorious at Nate's orthodontist. They laugh when I show up on time on the right day.

I do have a storehouse of useless info in my head. What's really scary is I know it's all there, but the search algorithms seem to need an update. I claim it's just I have sooo much more crammed up there that it takes longer to find junk.

Erin is far more the watch something a zillion times kinda kid, but Nate grabs details from movies and shows too. I think it's in the Kosboth genes... Nick not withstanding.

Dproudmama said...

Hmmm. Way too much to try to keep on track? - and perhaps devices give a false sense of "memory". Once we input items, maybe we give up ownership.