Memories

My kiddos have great memories. They tell me things all the time that they remember from books or movies or BrainPop. Eve one day busted out a ton of facts about caves that she had read weeks ago in a book during a reading test.

However, occasionally I find myself surprised by things they don’t remember. A few weeks ago we went to a party at “the bouncy house,” a fun play place we used to go to all the time when they were little. The place has a bouncy house and lots of mats for climbing and tumbling. They hold an open playgroup twice a week and we went regularly for a year or more when the kids were smaller. We stopped going when they became the “big” kids and started trampling the little ones. I found out at this party that Eve had no recollection of the place. When we got there she seemed to remember a bit, or maybe was just humoring me. I mentioned it to Lex later in the day and he had no memory of it either.

This evening I was in the kitchen making salad and Eve was hanging out with me. She saw “Pampered Chef” on something and asked what a pampered ch-ef was. I told her it was the name of the company who made the thing and, as the conversation went on, I realized she had no memory of Pampered Chef and my time there. She then spent the next ten minutes combing the kitchen trying to find Pampered Chef things. She didn’t even remember our Pampered Playhouse!

Their baby voices are so stinkin’ cute!

Anyway, none of that should surprise me really. It just seems crazy that things I remember like they were yesterday are completely foreign to them. Things we used to do all the time, they have no recollection of. Sigh.

One thought on “Memories

  1. I’ve been noticing this in our house, too, especially lately. Places and things that Molly used to remember clearly are suddenly missing.

    Did you hear this NPR story, “The Forgotten Childhood: Why Early Memories Fade”?
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/08/299189442/the-forgotten-childhood-why-early-memories-fade

    Seems that around ages 7, 8 or 9 is when kids’ brains change and they lose their early memories.

    I think I kind of knew that, but it’s such a strange thing to experience as a parent.

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