August 1, 2004 - One, two, three, sixteen, eighteen-
Everett likes to count. He started counting around 18 months with fives, fours and nines. First, everything was "four nine" then it changed to "five nine" ("mommy, five nine doggies!"), then he progressed to "four five nine" or "five four nine."
We were so proud of our smart little guy who couldn't help but count things. Of course, one and two would have been nice. We kept working with him and soon he was counting by twos: "one two three six eight ten!" or "one two six eight."
Natural numerical progression couldn't last for long, though. Around 23 months he chose to count forwards and backwards (especially if someone fed him the answer): nine chickens would be "one two six eight six nine chickens!"
Where, you ask, are the teens? Why does he stop at ten? I suppose he had to hit two before his numerical theory could extend beyond the decimal system's base.
Out of the blue, everything was "sisteen, eighteen!" He just counted his six cars after prompting from me and Aunt Hannah. It was "one two three sixteen eighteen six!"
Gone are the fours, fives and nines. Gone are the interesting numerical progressions. (when will he start counting in primes?) The way to count is with sixteens and eighteens.
It's so much more fun to count when you can just use your favorite numbers. Why stay tied down to boring numbers like four and twelve when you can stick with the cool numbers only? We should all be so lucky.
