Memories

My daughters and their freakish long-term memory:

JULIA: My tummy hurts, but water and juice aren't making it hurt, only milk.
ETHAN: Should we even be giving her juice if her tummy hurts?
ME: Well, if she was going to throw up, she would have done it already. Do you remember two years ago when she had the stomach bug and I was trying to get some fluids in her, and I made her drink a juice box and she immediately threw it up?
ETHAN: Oh, yeah, I guess you're right.
JULIA: I remember that, Mama! I remember that the juice box had Grover on it and after I drank it I threw up.

I also remember what kind of juice box it was. Grape juice. I remember the lovely grape juice-mixed-with-vomit smell as she barfed into the trash bin I was holding out to her. And sure enough, the Sesame Street character that is on the grape juice boxes is Grover. We haven't bought grape juice since that incident, in February 2010.


MADELEINE: Mommy, we go trick-or-treating on Halloween and we ring the doorbell and we say TRICK-OR-TREAT!
ME: That's right, that is what we do on Halloween. Do you remember what your costume was?
MADELEINE: A ballerina, and Julia's costume is RAPUNZEL!

While her short-term memory is occasionally challenged in trying to learn a new label, as you will see below, Madeleine proved that her memory is actually better than mine today:

ME: Madeleine, come here. Here you go!
MADELEINE: (running over to me and holding out something in her hand) Mommy! What's THAT?
ME: Oh, that's a coffee bean. Can you throw it in the garbage?
MADELEINE: (wisely) Yeah, that's a GARBAGE bean. It's a GARBAGE BEAN! I got to throw it in the garbage! (running off to throw it out.)
ME: Good girl! Thank you, Madeleine.
MADELEINE: (running back in) Mommy? What's "here you go?"
ME: (totally confused) What's here you go?
MADELEINE: What are you giving to me?
ME: (still blanking, then suddenly remembering how the conversation started) Oh! Here. (handing her the little figurine I had been attempting to give her before the garbage bean distraction.)