NUMBERS

My little brother learned to count when he was very young, and always loved numbers. When he was around 2 years old, he would sit on the front porch and just count--up to the thousands sometimes.

One time we had guests and my mom served a bowl of grapes. After a while, Arny told one of the guests, "You just ate 35 grapes". My mother was proud at how well he could count, but had to explain to him that people don't like it if you tell them exactly how much they have just eaten.

When we played Hide-and-Seek, if Arny was "it" he would count so fast that the other players had almost no time to hide. Since he was so good at counting, we sort of believed that he was really thinking all the numbers when he said "1,2,....100" so fast that you couldn't hear them. He says now that he believed it himself.

When Arny was 3 years old, my Aunt told him that if he learned to tell time she would get him a watch for his birthday. He got the watch for his 4th birthday. I didn't learn to tell time until I was 7.

When we were a little older, I got a pair of stilts. I set a neighborhood record by walking 10,000 steps. (That is the same as 100 steps 100 times without stopping). Arny was the official counter. Pretty soon a boy from down the block walked 10,001 steps, Arny counting again. I never got the record back.
Casa Loma. Picture courtesy of Arny, 2006.


When I was 9 years old, I knew about a very big number, infinity (sometimes written ∞). It is a number that is so big you can't count to it, and bigger than any number you can count to. That summer we visited Toronto, in Canada. We went to a big castle called Casa Loma. The guide told us about how very rich people used to live in the castle and had gold faucets and other fancy things. When I went home, my friend and I invented some people (make-believe) called "The Infinitaires". They had an infinite amount of money so could have any fancy thing they wanted. We drew pictures of their castle and all the things in it.

Here is a counting rhyme that I remember:
1,2,3, O'Leary.
4,5,6, O'Leary.
7,8,9, O'Leary.
10, O'Leary, postman.

Every time you say a number, you bounce a ball on the ground. Every time you say "O'Leary" or "postman", you bounce the ball and put your leg over it.

Here's another one:
1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4
5 potato, 6 potato, 7 potato, more.

This is used to choose a person for some chore or role. You point to a new person as you say "potato" each time, and when you point while saying "more" that person is "it".