keeping tabs

The Babe is a list maker. She keeps mental notes on all kinds of things, and always keeps it all straight. It's odd, and a bit frightening at times.

The first time The Babe made a list, it was so cute. She was two years old, it was just after The Boy was born and we were making a big deal out of the fact that we were a family, the four of us. So she made a list of the people in her family. She was #1, of course, The Boy was #2, then came Daddy, then Mommy. She added our pets to the list, and then went on to add in the Grammas and Grampas, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. The list became quite large, but she kept it all straight. We were amazed. She was two! She never got it wrong. If you asked her where Cosmo the cat was on the list, she'd tell you "#5!", every time. If you asked her who was number 17 on the list, she'd give you the same answer, every time. She never missed. It was scary.

Recently, she made a list of all her favorite colors. Silver, for example, is her fifth favorite color. The Babe has many, many lists that she keeps tabs on, and I find it to be very amusing. She's apparently a very organized little girl.

Now, today, she tells me that her Best Friend is our neighbor, Q. That's sweet, isn't it? But then she goes on... her 2nd Best Friend is C, from preschool, then A gets to be #3, and so on and so on. She's made a list of all her friends, in order of preference! Now, don't get me wrong... I know this is totally innocent and she certainly doesn't mean anything hurtful by this in the slightest. It was just two days ago that she asked me what the word "popular" means, so I'm not *really* concerned here. But, I did feel a need to try to explain to her that she should keep that list to herself. It's precisely because the whole thing is so innocent that I could see her at school, telling A that she's #3 on the list, behind C and Q. I don't want The Babe to hurt anyones feelings!

So I tried to explain it, and I am not certain The Babe "got it". She seemed to, and then she seemed not to. Knowing that the keeping of the lists is part of how she keeps herself organized, I don't want to make such a big deal of it that she feels bad about her lists, either, make sense? So, I wrapped it all up by telling her that usually people have just one Best Friend, and the rest are all Friends. She doesn't need to number them, everyone knows that Q is her Best Friend, and that's OK... I also told her that it was OK if she kept a list in her head, but that we should keep this one our little secret.

So... I'm thinking this is a real skill she has. What do you think she could do with this crazy ability to keep tabs?