Brandt

Brandt is my 13 -almost 14-year old son. He is an incredible kid- extremely athletic, off the charts smart, compassionate, funny...but he is also forgetful. I don't know how you can be so incredibly smart and forget so many things. I have at times wondered if it's possible that he has no short term memory but then he remembers trivial, insignificant things like the migratory pattern of the hummingbird while forgetting important things, like, his shoes. We have actually left to go out to eat, gotten to the restaurant- and Brandt climbs out of the car and says "Hey, I don't have any shoes." Wow.
Another time when we were about to leave for soccer- I told him to go out to the garage, get his cleats- put them on, and get in the car. I hear him head down the steps, the front door opens then closes, a couple minutes pass- I hear the door open and close again and Brandt's voice "Mom- what was I looking for?" Even if he's not listening to me (which I'm pretty sure he's not) by process of elimination it seems to me he could figure out "Hey- I'm in the garage looking for something that probably has to do with where I'm going which is soccer-hmm, is it the rake? No... mower?No... wheelbarrow? nope... CLEATS! That's right!"
Over Spring Break we went to Guatemala on a mission trip. In the Atlanta airport- between security and our gate he managed to lose his belt, his passport, his backpack(this had all his insulin,needles and monitor for his diabetes), and his sweatshirt. That was before we even left the country!! Fortunately- his friends managed to recover all his belongings for him before he missed them.
Last week, he forgot he had a giant box cutter in his pocket and took it to school with him. You can imagine the phone call I got from the principal. How do you forget you have a giant metal thing in your pocket? You're Brandt, that's how.
I'm not sure there is any point to me telling you this except that I need someone to share my pain. This is what I live with daily. But I wouldn't trade him for anything. He is so great that mostly his forgetfulness doesn't matter (until you're stuck in a foreign country without a passport- thank you Jordan for saving us from this). I have full confidence it will not interfere with him leading an incredible life- he may just not have shoes on for large chunks of it.