Switching my topic today from mammaries to memories…

We were watching television at some point last summer and heard Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable“. Ben piped up “Grandma and Grandpa’s party!” Peter and I looked at eachother first confused and then slackjawed. He’s right - that song was on the video montage that was played at my parents 50th Anniversary party. But the kicker is he was just a year old at the time. How could he possibly have made that connection and still have that memory? Completely. Freaky.

And now I know, in a few years he will most likely have forgotten “Unforgettable.”

That is why this article by Heather Turgeon on Babble.com “Memento” on how these little brains work fascinated me. You can read it here - it’s about the steel trap memories kids have in the early years that dissipate before they go to kindergarten - chilldhood amnesia.

It’s this strange dichotomy - you invest so much time and investment in trying to have all of these good times together that we’ll remember but the little ones just won’t. Hopefully they have a positive emotional effect on them on some level as mentioned in the article.

But I guess that’s why we blog, take so many photos and videos, scrapbook, keep baby books etc…to prove that in the midst of all the diapers, teething and sleepless nights we actually had fun in these formative years!

What memories has your child had that have amazed you? What do you hope they’ll remember - or forget…?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:43 am and is filed under Family Life, Related Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.