with great power comes great responsibility, which kinda stinks for me

I think deep down we all assume as young women that something will magically transform us from people to moms as soon as we have children. It does happen actually. It comes in small defining moments starting with the first time you realize the little squirming bundle actually does belong to you and isn't just some cool parting gift they're sending you home with from the hospital. Some of the moments are pretty magic, and after eight years I have fully surrendered to one such super power. I used to get so annoyed when things were lost in the house, because it happened eighteen times a day. "Mom, where's my Batman?" "Mom, where's that ship I was flying?" "Mom, where's that [indescribable toy that apparently came from a restaurant or something and does some indescribable thing]" I will always answer with this: How could I possibly know that? You are the one who was playing with it. But when I can no longer ignore their exasperated, if completely unsystematic, searching, I finally put down what I was doing and join them. And almost without fail, there it is. I find it after about two tries. It's like I get a vision of the stupid thing and where exactly it has managed to lodge itself. My husband lost his work keys once and I just sat down and waited for the vision, and it came. I sat straight up, lifted the computer chair cushion, reached inside it's liner, and there were the keys. "How in the world did you do that?" my husband asked. Well: I'm Mom, SuperFinder. (I vaguely remembered Jake with some keys at some point that day in my peripheral vision, and I vaguely remembered his sticking his hand in the liner at another point in the day - I put them together and, wah-lah, the vision).

The thing is, I used to really fight it. Every time I found something I would think, "Darn it, I found another one. Now they'll never quit asking me where stuff is." So again and again, "How should I know . . . . etc, etc., and then, Oh here it is." Aargh. Well, I've surrendered to it now. I'm quite proud of it. Now when I find something I just brag, "It's like they call to me! I am the world's best finder! I had no idea what you were even talking about, and I found it! I'm so good at this, really, someone should pay me for it. I know, I know, what would you do without me? And thank you, I'm here all week."