1 set of keys, 2 iPads, and a backwards shirt

If you know Missy and I, you know that we both have a fairly decent memory, albeit in different ways.

Here is a good example of how I work: You and I might have a conversation about something. I won’t take notes, hell, half the time, you probably think I’m not listening because I’m fidgeting, staring at the wall or am not saying much back. BUT, 6 months later, I can remember the conversation almost word for word. When something peaks my interest, I’ll research it and from that point forward can spout of wealth of what most would consider useless info. However, ask me to bring a bottle of wine to dinner, and chances are, I’ll forget. I’ll grab it and walk out the door. Once out the door, I’ll remember that I forgot my wallet and walk into the house, set the wine on dryer and grab my wallet. Then, flustered from forgetting something, I’ll walk right out the door, right past the wine, without the actually grabbing wine. This, last examples happens ALL the time. The people at Safeway probably know me as the guy who forgets his wallet all the time and has to have them store his cart in the refrigerator while he runs home to get it.

Now, here is how Missy works: She will remember very detailed things. She will remember the wine for dinner. She always asks if I have the keys and my wallet when we walk out together. She will have a list and attach it systematically forgetting nothing. BUT, ask her to recall a conversation you had two days ago and you’ll often get a response like “I think I remember that” or “not what you say that, I’m pretty sure I remember that,” or, sometimes you’ll get a “we did not have this conversation!” (even though you did!).

It’s the perfect balance. Together, our memory is unstoppable! Like most of our personality traits, we balance each other exceptionally well here. Well, time to fly the upside down flag here friends because this pregnancy brain thing you hear about….it’s real! For those that haven’t heard, “pregnancy brain” essentially just means that you are extra forgetful. You can’t find things, you forget things, you often forget why you walked into a room. It essentially makes it seem like because you are pregnant, you have early onset Alzheimer’s. There is actually a WebMD article about it!

http://www.webmd.com/baby/features/memory_lapse_it_may_be_pregnancy_brain

Turns out that sleep deprivation, stress and multitasking combined with a bunch of extra estrogen and progesterone in the brain and you tend to forget things you otherwise would remember. In the last couple weeks between the two of us, we’ve lost both iPads (recently found), my name tag for work, Missy has walked off with my keys in the morning (in addition to her own), Missy wore her shirt completely backwards all day, and the list goes on.

I fear for when the girls are born and we are both massively sleep deprived, it’s going to be messy. Sometime between now and birth, I’ve gotta figure out how to account for it. I don’t want to be “those parents” who always seem disorganized, messy, late (ok, this might be unrealistic because it’s a fight to keep up on time without kids), etc…I want to have it together and be presentable. I know there is a way to do it. I see families do it often…hell, I saw parents of a set of toddler twins doing it when we were in Santa Barbara! It can be done, I must figure out how!

Until then, people will just have to have grace until we get a system down for both of us being forgetful about small things!