Lately, I feel as though I’ve been forgetting things.

I’m not “losing” my glasses sitting on the top of my head, or worse, on my face, or misplacing things. I’m drifting, day dreaming, becoming distracted.

I think my four year old tries to hypnotize me by asking when I have one hand in the fridge to reach for an egg, one hand in the sink rinsing a dish, my eyes on the kitchen timer waiting for something to remind me it’s burning, “Hey Mommy, can you do this?”

She’s crossing one finger over another or hiding her thumb in the palm of her hand or sticking out her tongue that she believes is touching the tip of her nose but really it’s just the illusion of looking down at her own magic trick.

Yes Chloe, I can do all of those things. Everyone can. I just can’t stop what I’m doing and prove it to you in this moment.

Then Hanna starts a story about how “Lexi took some pictures on her phone and Mia thought it was so funny she fell into this hilarious body twist and Brady sprayed Booster Juice out of his nose,” Ellie interrupts handing me a Styrofoam ball and a second ball of what might be yarn and says, “Mommy can you weave this?”when Chloe starts asking, “Hey Mommy can you do this?” and she appears to just be standing still in front of me and I look her up and down to fully take in what it is I’m supposed to be doing. “Breathing?” No Mommy, this.

Still confused, she hasn’t budged.

Ah yes, she’s standing with her feet a few inches apart but the big toes are pointed towards each other and are touching.

When I turn off the oven timer, rinse the soap from my hands, smell the egg shell, wrap some yarn, ask myself, “what am I doing smelling an egg shell?” before throwing it away Hanna has ended her pictures/body twist/Booster snot story and appears to want a reaction from me.

I have defaulted to saying, “Oh that is funny” or, “Cute” as my two go-to responses when I haven’t been paying attention.

Only once did one of the kids say, “Cute? Cute? You think it’s cute that his Mom almost ran over a turtle!”

“Mom, can you do this?”

Yes Chloe, I can blink.