Reid was working on Valentine’s Day cards Wednesday night just before we needed to go upstairs for a bath and bed. I told her that she could use 3 medium and 4 small hearts for each card to help limit the time involved. Reid decided that she needed to first take an inventory of the hearts available to her. “1, 2, 3, 4,” she counted and then she decided that wasn’t specific enough and restarted, “1 heart, 2 hearts, 3 hearts, …” I stopped listening at this point and asked Ken who, exactly, taught the kid to count. I didn’t add, “and why” but I was thinking it. Reid delights in counting things and not just at inconvenient times. I don’t know if things feel more real to once they’ve been counted or whether she gets a “counter’s high” like long-distance runners get a “runner’s high”. Maybe she’ll be a math geek (oh please, please, please!)