Numbers!

Evan is really into numbers and age right now. He actually does pretty well at counting to 100- if he stops at every 9 (29, 39, etc.) and asks what comes next. I am amazed by his interest in numbers. When we notice things like this, I feel like I have a tiny little glimpse into my growing son’s future.

I don’t know how many times Evan has looked at the clock and asked me, “What’s 0-1? What’s 1-1? What’s 2-1?” (He’s into numbers but definitely doesn’t know that we read from left to right. This morning he wanted me to see his project on the living room floor. He had plastic numbers lined up- in order except for the 6 and the 9- and exactly backward.) Now his thing is looking at the numbers on the cereal box during breakfast and asking, “What’s 0-8? What’s 0-2-1?”

This morning he was counting the scoops of oatmeal I was putting into the granola. I needed 3. After 1, Evan said, “Two more.” It’s fun to see little things that might be signaling some of our kids’ God-given abilities.

Evan talks about numbers, then when he comes up with a number he really likes, he often tells me “Mom, I want to be 16 sometime” or “Mom, I want to be 80 sometime.” It’s all about age right now- Who’s older than who and how old Kendall and I are.

Speaking of age and my kids’ current fascination with it… Eli learned that after a certain age, people often get smaller as they get older. Well, there was a very tiny woman from our church that passed away a few months ago. Her name was Susie and she wasn’t a whole lot bigger than Eli. A couple weeks ago we celebrated another woman’s birthday. After we sang Happy Birthday to her, Eli leaned over to me and asked how old she was. I told him that she was 89. Then Eli asked how old Susie was. I told him that she was 80. Eli was shocked! How was this possible?! Someone older than Susie, but bigger than her?! He must have thought that Susie was about as old as you could get!