Do any 5th grade boys remember things?

The question that I find myself asking most often is "Do any 5th grade boys remember things?" I am having a hard time determining if my son, A, is just extremely forgetful and plagued with terrible short term memory loss or if it is more an age thing.

He can be standing right next to the napkins, and we can ask him to bring the napkins to the table. Immediately after he says "Okay" he will walk to the table without the napkins. I just don't understand it. I could understand if things like this occured once in a while - who doesn't forget things at times? In fact, I find myself still suffereing from pregnancy brain and my baby girl is almost 10 months old. But A seems to never remember anything. Unless it is lyrics to music or something I told him we might possibly do at some point in the future. He certainly remembers those things and asks about them constantly.

I don't know how to get him to remember things, any suggestions out there? We have a planner, tried lists, wipe of boards, nagging, taking things away. I recently threatened to walk him to class and meet him outside of class after school with the two little kids daily (while wearing my fuzzy crocs) if I don't start seeing papers from school. That seemed to help a little bit, but only that first day.

He is a great student and a wonderful kid, but this forgetfulness is really causing some major problems when it comes to important things that we are missing. Help! :)

SJ and the flip flop fiasco

SJ, my 2 year old, is one of the most entertaining little men I have ever met. In addition, he is also one of the most stubborn little men I have ever met. His current obsession is anything Cars; specifically Lightning McQueen, which he affectionately calls "Cuck-Cuck". As you can imagine, his wardrobe consists of many Cars items. His favorites are his Crocs and flip flops.

SJ requested his Cuck-Cuck flip flops today, and he does a pretty good job walking in them. However, when a 2 year old has a temper tantrum while his older brother is trying to help corral him into his car seat, flip flops go flying. As usual, we were in danger of being late to soccer practice for my 10 year old, A. So when SJ's flip flop went flying because he didn't want to go into his car seat, I chose to leave it on the floor while we drove to the field. It was quite possibly the longest 7 minute ride of my life. Apparently by not putting SJ's flip flop back on his foot A and I committed a terrible crime. The amount of shrieking, crying and begging for his "fleep fop shoes" would have made you think I had taken away his best friend - or denied him a snack!

Once we arrived at the field the flip flop went back on, but it appears my son is now traumatized. He told anyone who looked in his direction that "Mommy no SJ fleep fop shoes". Thankfully I really am the only one who can understand him. Hopefully he forgets this by tomorrow.