Looney Tunes

Mommy-brain, memory lapse, The Crazies, losing my mind... I refer to it by many different names. But there is no mistaking it, I am "not all there" lately. I've written about this before, but I think it's getting worse. I've entered the name-confusion stage of motherhood... and from what I've been told, this stage is probably here to stay. If you were a stranger and heard me talking to my children, you'd probably think I was crazy for naming my kids "Loomax", "Aud-er-Lucian", "Maudrey", "LouAudraMax", or the most common one lately, "Whateveryournameis".

But it doesn't stop with names. I have been blanking out on words like nobody's business. I feel like Porky Pig, constantly coming up with substitutions for words I can't remember. If no substitution is readily available, I describe the object whose name is eluding me ("Today we went to... the place with the trees and swings and sand that the kids like to play at.") or if I'm totally desperate I just give up completely ("Honey, where did you put the thing? What, you don't know what I mean? The thing!") When this used to happen, I could cover it up because Max wasn't old enough to really notice if there were extra long pauses between my words. But now, if I forget a word in the middle of the sentence, he notices.

"Max, please pick up your markers and put them in the... um..."

After a short wait, Max echoes, "um...." and if it still doesn't come to me, "In the what, Mom?"

Finally, the word will return. "Put them in the drawer, please."

And then as he follows the long-awaited instruction, he innocently asks, "Why did it take you so long to say that?"

I don't know, honey. Mommy's going crazy.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with these little buggers