The Absentminded Professor

I have christened Lucy with a new nickname. Around these parts, she is now known as the Absentminded Professor. How did she earn this name, you might ask? Well, some Lucy antics that have gone down in the past week include:

• Upon brushing her teeth one night, she informed me that she "couldn't remember" what she did with the top to the toothpaste. Um, the options are fairly limited, right? And you just took it off like 30 seconds ago, so what do you mean you can't remember? Silly girl! (Note: I found it the next day)
• Upon getting ready for her bath one night, she informed me that, oops! she accidentally put her clean undies on top of the undies she had been wearing (and backwards, to boot), so she spent the entire day wearing two pair of underpants, and didn't even notice until about 7:00 p.m. when it was time to get undressed for the bath.
• Upon tucking her in one night, I realized that her nightgown was on backwards. It looked very uncomfortable, but she hadn't even noticed.
• Upon picking her up from school one day, I noted that her boots were on backwards, and presumably had been all day. "They feel fine, mom." Like, duh, it doesn't really matter if my shoes are on the right feet!? Worry about something important, mother!

These are just a few examples of Lucy's typical Absentminded Professor behaviors. One of my favorites is from a couple years ago. We were on vacation and had been out and about all day. At the end of the day, we were back at our hotel getting ready for bed and as Lucy was changing into her pj's she calmly proclaimed that she seemed to have forgotten to put her undies on that morning. So she spent an entire day of sightseeing while unintentionally going commando. The funniest thing is that she always just blows these episodes off, not bothered in the least by anything as meaningless as backwards (or inside out, or even sideways) clothing.

When I ask her what she did at school, the answer is almost invariably (in the sweetest voice you've ever heard), "I can't remember."  Who did you play with at recess? "I can't remember." Who did you sit with at lunch? "I can't remember." I'm sure you get the idea...

So I give her a cute new nickname, and snigger about her silly forgetfulness, and tease her a little about being the Absentminded Professor. And then...and then I get my comeuppance. Guess who put Lucy's animal project, which was due today, in with the recycling (which was picked up on Wednesday)? That's right, ME. Okay, I'm not 100% sure on that, but I couldn't find it (when I remembered, just before bedtime last night, that she needed to finish it), and I did kind of go nuts scavenging through the house for paper to fill the recycling bins to their fullest capacity. So yeah, I have to admit that's probably what happened. And then I had to email her teacher and tell her what happened. Gulp. She was very sweet and understanding about it, and is letting Lucy re-do the project this weekend. Thank goodness Lucy wasn't too upset, especially considering that she did the bulk of the project at school with her 5th grade buddy.

I'm swallowing my pride and admitting that Lucy may be sharing her nickname with her mother.