Four!

Actually written on 09/16/06

Ever since my children have developed the skill of speaking--2 of the 3, so far-- they have been fascinated by the number FOUR. I'm not sure why. T began one day by telling me that her favorite number was FOUR. She also liked two, but not as much. The past several days, L has been doing absolutely everything in FOURs. She counts to FOUR over and over as she trots around playing, while taking a bath, riding in the car, whatever. FOUR.

Why FOUR? Especially when such things at these ages as counting automatically go to TEN. It's considered a milestone to have your child learn to count to TEN without missing any of the numbers, and without reversing the order in any way. Of course, we are always pointing out that we have TEN fingers and TEN toes. So why not a fascination with the number TEN?

Or even two. My kids started telling everyone how old they were when they were TWO. We have TWO eyes, ears, arms, legs, nostrils, etc. They have TWO parents. Each of my girls has TWO sisters. And up until the last three months, I had TWO daughters.

What about THREE? According to what I learned so many years ago thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, THREE is a magic number. Yes it is.

Perhaps L's focus on FOUR comes from my softball practice a few weeks ago when she heard "FORE!" yelled a few times from the golfers on the neighboring golf course. I'm certain she had no idea what it meant, but she did see all the adults on the field quickly duck and look around. It probably didn't help that during our practice she heard "HEAD'S UP!" yelled and then seconds later was hit by a foul ball. Perhaps we should have yelled FORE! Not that that would have prevented the mild trauma anyway, given that she doesn't know what that means either.

And speaking of the practice of yelling "head's up" on a ball diamond when an errant ball might strike someone, why do people actually look DOWN when they hear the phrase? I guess we'd all rather be hit in the back of the head rather than in the nose...which, by the way, was where L. was struck. Thankfully it was just a glancing blow.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Here's hoping I get at least TWO hours sleep before the baby needs to be fed. THREE or FOUR would be great. Of course, though, I'll be dreaming of TEN.

Later, and happy parenting:) K.