It's been a few years, since I have taken care of a room full of preschoolers. Sometimes, I'll think back to some of my favorite kids at the WVU Hospitals CDC, like Viktor who was in the 3-year-old room, or some of the kids who stood out because they were insanely brilliant or advanced in some area, like Medea who had an incredible vocabulary at just 19-months-old. This little girl knew the names of EVERY kid's Mommy and Daddy, and would announce each of them, when they picked up their child. Parents were always blown away by her, and would always ask her age. When we'd tell them, they'd look as if to ask, "Is my kid that far behind? He only says a few words!?!" We'd always assure them that Medea was the ONLY child who was like this, and we were also blown away by her.
Then there was little Libby. She was also in the 3-year-old room. This little girl could draw like no other! She drew the most detailed pictures, and she could do them, start to finish, in less than five minutes. Libby could sit at the table and draw and color for hours. She was so good at it. I remember telling her mom one evening, when she came to pick her up, that I thought Libby was gifted at art. I assured her that the other kids' drawings were nowhere near the level of Libby's. She said she had always loved drawing and art, even throughout college, however, medicine was her calling, and she rarely had time to do any art in the recent years and she missed it very much, so she was thrilled to see Libby's love of drawing and painting.
So I've worked with lots of kids over the years. I mean, I have worked with some AMAZING kids! I could write stories about them all day. Some were funny. Some were incredibly insightful about life and God. Some could sing. Some could write. Some were autistic. Some couldn't read. But they were all so great. Each of them were molded by God and given special gifts and talents and abilities. Now that I'm a mom, I appreciate those small details more than I ever did before.
This might have been a big lead in to a small detail about Jadon, but this kid sometimes leaves me with my jaw on the floor. I never bothered documenting this little 'quirk' he has before, mainly because I wasn't quite sure if it really was a Jadon kind of thing or maybe just something most toddlers do. Tonight he changed my mind.
Let me back up a little and tell you that Jadon has an impeccable memory. I try to think back to other 2 yr. olds I have worked with or known and if maybe they too had the same memory. I mean, c'mon, they're all little sponges at this age, and they really do take so much more in than we ever realize, right? How many times have you seen yourself mirrored back to you through your toddler? Many, I'm certain.
A few months ago, Jadon was well into his Cars Movie toys. One day, he pulled his container of character cars (about 25 cars in all) out and dumped them onto the floor. Nearly as soon as they hit the floor with a crash, he asked, "Where's the Hudson Hornet? Where's Doc?" At first I thought it was probably there under all of the other cars, since he had dumped them all out, but then after looking, I realized Doc was, in fact, missing. How did he know that so fast? Weird.
Other incidents of this super memory behavior:
---Jadon has to sleep with an entire stuffed animal family of bears: Daddy brown bear, Mama red bear, Brother bear, Sister white bear, and the newly added Auntie Em bear that is yellow (it is the matching bear to the Mama red bear...only red is a much prettier color :) Sometimes, he likes to throw in the "new bear," which is really his 1st stuffed animal from Grandpa that we recently got back out of his closet. ANYWAY...the point is that Jadon likes to have ALL of his bears around him, before he goes to sleep at naptime and bedtime.
One day at naptime, I didn't see his "Sister white bear," so I tried to sneak it by him and grabbed them all and hurried and tucked them all around him, as fast as I could, kissed his head and said, "Okay, goodnight, buddy. Sweet dreams." There is NO WAY he saw all of the bears around him. Trust me. No way! The kid immediately says, "Sister white bear???" Are. You. Kidding. Me??? How? How did he know that? Weird.
---Jadon is into this thing with patterns and matching items. If he is playing with flashcards, for instance, and he finds a card with a giraffe, he then wants to go get his giraffe stuffed animal, and his giraffe magnet from a magnetic book he has and any other giraffe he can think of. This is the same for any other animal or item that has a 'match' in our house. He then sends me and Jamie on wild goose chases through the house and sometimes the garage, in search of these items. I usually know what he's talking about, but Jamie sometimes doubts and thinks Jadon is just making things up and being a whiny 2 year old. I always assure him, whatever he is saying, "trust me...he knows what he's talking about...just follow him."
So tonight. Tonight I'm STILL typing this and thinking, "Did he really? Nooo! How could he...? That's just crazy!"
It has been nearly six weeks, since Jadon last played with his magnetic letters that we put on the dishwasher. I don't even think he played with them at that time because we got them out to keep Macy occupied in the kitchen. So we got the letters out, and he took them into the kitchen and he and Macy played for no more than two minutes. Some of the letters were scattered on the floor, some were stuck on the front of the dishwasher, and a few were still in the container we keep them in. Let me say to you that Jadon has NEVER lined these letters up or looked for them in any sort of order. He only had them out for TWO minutes. He wasn't even paying that much attention to them. He was really more interested in annoying Macy by taking them out of her hand, laughing and tossing it onto the floor.
Out of nowhere, Jadon starts asking, "Where's the F? Where's the F?" I'm half listening to him, then I look down and think, "Oh, just look for it. I'm sure it's here. Look at this mess!" Then I stopped and asked Jamie if he saw the F. When we didn't see it at first glance, I asked him to count the letters. Two. Four. Six....Twenty...Twenty-five...Jamie says, "There are 25 letters and no F."
Seriously, Jadon. What the F? Who are you, Rain Man?
