Counting

There's been a whole lotta weird going on since I picked Lila up from school.

Actually, it started while we were waiting for Lila in the carpool line, because that's when Eli decided to start counting. I didn't know why he was counting. He had been talking for the better part of two hours and, to be honest, I wasn't really listening anymore.

I only became fully aware of what he was doing when he got stuck and asked me what came next. Some part of my subconscious told me that the last number he'd said was 99, so I said the next number was 100.

I hope that my subconscious was telling the truth. I can just see this coming back to haunt me later...

"But Mom, you said that 100 comes after 35!"

Lila got to the car shortly after that and she became his What-Comes-Next Helper. I only stepped in when she told him that 1000 comes after 199. By the time we got to our neighborhood, Lila's voice had taken on a bit of an edge.

When I got out of the car and came into our house, Eli was going strong. Several seconds later, Lila came in, quickly shut the door behind her, and said, "He's still counting! He's at 300 now!"

She had such a perfect look of consternation on her face that I just started giggling. Shortly afterward, Eli came in the front door, still counting, and that made me giggle even more. As he sat down and started taking his socks and shoes off - still counting - I managed to ask him,

Me: "So... what's your plan for counting? Like... when are you going to stop?"
Eli: "Stop me when I get to 101."
Me: "Dude. You passed up 101 a long time ago."
Eli: "I did?!? Wow. I didn't even know I counted to 101."

And, just like that, he was done.

Then I noticed that my daughter wasn't wearing any pants...