Elephants have nothing on otters

Otter never forgets a request he's made. This morning, he was standing next to the bed with his drum, banging on it, and asked for a drumstick: a red drumstick.

In theory, we do have a red drumstick, a plastic one that goes with his piano/xylophone toy. He hasn't used that drumstick in weeks, and I have no idea where it is. I did know where a wooden drumstick was (on the kitchen counter in a jar of pens--organizational strategies at our house are as much pragmatic than logical: because the drumstick is a similar shape and will be visible in the pen jar, I will see it frequently and know where it is when Otter asks for it). So I told Otter that I would bring him back a plain wooden drumstick when I got him a clean cloth diaper from the living room diaper basket.

When I returned five minutes later with the diaper, Otter immediately looked up from his play with his father and said: "Drumstick!"

Oops, sorry, I went and got the wooden drumstick from the kitchen.

When I handed him the drumstick, he looked at me, made a displeased fussy cry, and said, "RED drumstick, RED drumstick."

Regular readers will know what I said: "The red drumstick is on an adventure, honey."

What I want to know is, will he keep this focused memory thing, where he can seem completely occupied with something else for quite a while--sometimes a whole day--and then immediately retrieve his requisite demand at the earliest moment when it can be fulfilled?

And if so, will this be a way for me to finally have a personal assistant who can keep track of all those details I forget?