1, 2, 3...chaos!

Although I wouldn't exactly describe my son's grasp of the numbers between 1 and 10 as rock-solid, he occasionally does make it to 10 when counting something important, like pieces of candy. So I know he can do it.

But lately, his counting has gone a bit squirrelly. He'll be counting happily along, "1, 2, 3," and then "4, 5," but then skips 6 to get to "7, 8, 9", and then things get really crazy: "4, 2, 7, 9, 3!" Then he looks up at me proudly and says, "Yes, there are 3!"

When counting us off for a running race: "1, 8, 9, 4, Go!"

When counting pieces of cereal for a snack: "1, 2, 3, 8!"

I'm not exactly sure what's going on. Is it a regression? Or is he messing with me, knowing that I've never done this "mom" thing before and tend to worry too much; is he trying to push me to my breaking point? My best guess is that he just thinks it's fun to say numbers at random.

Either way, I'm not really worried. For now, I'll just count everything in sight with him. You know, just for a little reinforcement. Within reason, of course - in the books we read and things around the house. I won't, for example, go crazy and count every fish in every fish tank in Petsmart, at my son's request. Err... yes, I guess I did do that last weekend. (Grand total: about 8,000,000.)

On the plus side, he knows how to use my phone. And isn't that all kids need to know these days?