Memory

I am always so amazed by my son's memory. Perhaps this is exaggerated by the fact that my memory (especially long-term) is so poor, but even so, JC's memory is definitely one of his greatest assets. It is his memory - at least in part - that made it possible for him to read so early, all by sight (though he has developed excellent decoding skills on his own as well). It is also his memory, I think, that fuels some of his obessions - like collections, for instance. He's always making connections to things he's seen before, so when he sees (or hears) something that is part of a series or collection, for instance - like different episodes of a video collection or different varieties of auto tags (a new interest since our trip to the tag agency earlier this month) - he becomes passionately interested in studying them, collecting them and discussing them. This interest can and does become obssessive, but it does appear that over time he moves on to newer, broader interests, which is nice - and important.

This afternoon, while walking around a lake downtown, we passed a family enjoying a picnic under a shade tree. JC noted that the girl - a teenager - was eating a Rice Crispy treat, so he excitedly announced, "I remember sister eats that snack before!" (which sounds more like, "I wememah siser eats wat snack befoa!) Sure enough, last summer when M was home from college with us, we stocked up on the boxes of 100 calorie Rice Crispy treats for her and she ate them daily. M was quite pleased that he remembered. So was I.
He might be delayed, dyspraxic, autistic . . . but he's my smart boy. <3