The five-year-old has a new obsession:

Cars and Trucks and Things that Go.

The book is missing its cover, the first 8 pages and comes in two sections, courtesy of the abuse he bestowed upon it when he didn’t want to read it every night.

I mean I’m all for reading but sheesh 68 pages!? PLUS, all the labels on all the machines (about 20 per spread), some dialogue here and there AND you need to find Goldbug on every page. Reading the whole thing can take a solid 45 minutes.

I find it daunting. Won’t he like reading just as much if we read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” instead? That one has only like 20 pages and about 10 words on each page. PLUS, if you do good voices you can look like super parent without killing yourself.

But no, it has to be Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, otherwise I get drama and big puppy dog eyes.

Anyhoo, I didn’t bring the book up just to complain (although I do love me a good complaint now and then). Nope, what I wanted to tell you was the other night, when the evening demand came, I suggested the five-year-old read the book to me.

And by God, that kid has about 95% of that book memorized. Memorized. Complete with word-for-word phrasing and vocal inflections.

I was impressed. I mean did I mention that this book is nearly 70 pages long (minus the missing first 8)? That is an achievement.

This is what it’s like to have a brain that isn’t filled with the multiplication tables, a grocery list, and all the lyrics from the Synchronity album. There’s room for memorizing 70 page long kid’s books.

As I’ve noticed before, this child has some impressive gray matter.