Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Every once in a while something will happen that will cause me to reflect on similarities between my kids, and I always think it's cool when the similarities aren't necessarily physical like, say, when the girls were routinely mistaken for twins for about SIX YEARS because they wore their hair in the same style (never mind that Peyton barely came up to Darcy's shoulders--my, how things change!).

The similarity that I write about today is the ability of both of my boys to recollect the resting place of various objects, especially when they've moved on to other things and the object(s) in question is no longer of primary interest. Now, my girls get their INability to find things from both me AND their dad, so I'm not sure to whom I should attribute Tyler's and Sawyer's talent. I was mentally frustrated the other day when Darcy couldn't find the goggles that she had been wearing on her head only moments before (we were headed to the Big Splash), but I couldn't get on to her because I know so well the feeling of laying something down, only to turn around a moment later and have ABSOLUTELY no idea where I put it. Ask my kids--they will confirm this, every one.

The kids and I made a jaunt downtown today to the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and the sole possession on Sawyer's body was a little bag (won as a prize in the reading club) in which he was transporting some die-cast cars. Disney Pixar's Cars cars, to be specific. Six of them. Ordinarily I would have had Sawyer leave them in the van but he was so proud of that little bag and was wearing it like a backpack, and I didn't see the harm in bringing it in.

We were all over that library--it's a monstrous place--and we were there for nearly three hours. Now if you know me at all you know that I occasionally become distracted--about little things, not IMPORTANT things--so you can imagine how, after three hours, those little cars were the last thing on my mind. But not Sawyer. We had made it all the way back to the van when Sawyer suddenly piped up and said, "I forgot my library bag!" And sure enough, it was exactly where he said it would be, even though we had traipsed up stairs and down and visited numerous rooms. Heck, I don't think even I would remember where I'd left a bag after all that!

Sawyer is always like that. He is forever taking his flip-flops off and leaving them wherever he happens to be so that he can run more freely, but he ALWAYS remembers where he leaves them. Peyton can be WEARING her flip-flops and still not know where hers are, if you know what I mean!

Sawyer reminds me of Tyler about seven years ago when he was about three, and we had gone to the UP in Michigan to do a VBS with the church there. We had gone to a local park and were throwing a Frisbee with Tyler until he got bored, I suppose, and then we wandered off to do other things. When it came time to leave, however, we couldn't find the Frisbee anywhere. Never fear, Tyler is here! Our little three-year-old remembered exactly where we'd left it . . . where he'd buried it is probably more accurate!

 

(This photo is from Christmas, hence the sweater and long-sleeved shirts.)