You Could Remember 15% or More

During the warm months, Melvin the Foxhound lives on a leash-line in the back yard. While he has the entire width of our house to run around, he happily spends hours barking at our shed doors. He seems to think something is living under there and will bark all day to the one-inch gap between the ground and wall. I can't say for sure if something is there - I haven't seen an animal under the shed since we got Melvin and it would have to be the dumbest, and deafest, animal on the planet to live there - but just a glimpse of movement will send our dog into a frenzy. The thrill of the hunt, or protecting his turf, or whatever it is - the memory of why he is there is good to him, and it is just the way he wants to remember it.

Sometimes I remember things out of habit. While I was in England this past summer, every time I turned on the radio I thought I was in the middle of the Geico commercial! Even on my last day I'd forget the simple fact thatt everyone has a British accent : ) I rented a car while I was there and forced myself to drive on the left side of the road. That had to be a conscience decision every time I took the wheel. The other day while we were driving out of our neighborhood I asked Jess if I was on the correct side of the road. I was, but my brain was having a hard time remembering which was right, after training hard to know left was right and right was not!

Hugh will be a year old in two weeks and so much has changed since he was a little baby. Now he can scoot everywhere, climb the stairs, give people High 5's, and answers the question "How" (like, "How big?") by throwing his hands to his head. Such a different little boy than what he was, and it's becoming harder to remember a short time in the past. A few months ago, when Hugh was just a few months old himself, my dad commented that he didn't remember these times when Brother and I were babies. I thought he was crazy! How could he not remember such an amazing and wonderful time?!! Now here I am only a year into fatherhood and some memories are slipping away. It's too crazy to think I was like this to my dad and that someday, Lord willing, Hugh will be like that to me. Maybe I'll remember things the way I want to remember them, and maybe some memories will be out of habit, and the rest may all be fading away, but to have and cherish (and blog about) them once is certainly awesome.