Numbers past 10

I really appreciate the short time that I get to spend with just Tamlin in the evenings. This is the 30-45minutes between when I've put Jude to bed and Tam's getting ready to go down too. Sometimes we watch part of movie, sometimes we read books, or we play cars (of course), or he helps me with a sewing project, or any number of little mom-&-son tasks.

A few nights ago, I realized that the Jude's baby food packages are perfect for keeping small items in. These food bins are about 4oz, plastic, and have a snap on lid. (I usually make fruit baby food, but buy vegetables because mine turn out to stringy for toothless Jude). Well, what do I have around the house that are small and need to be coralled into these cute little containers? Ah-ha! Buttons! I have a a full-to-the-brim mason jar of buttons to be used for sewing projects. Sorting this little buggers by color into these bins would be a great mom and Tam job for the evening.

With a little persuasion, I convinced Tam that sorting and matching buttons would be AWESOME FUN. This did take a surprisingly little persuasion; he really likes matching right now and little things (like buttons, bells, coins, etc.) While sorting, he would narrate everything he was doing: "Look, mom! Pink button! Does this blue match these buttons? Look, a bell! Look, this one is black and white!" While talking all about the morphological characteristics of buttons, I convinced Tam to try counting them too.

We start lining out the green buttons and counting. Tamlin easily counts up to ten; he's been doing this for awhile now. And then he goes on! "Eleven, Twelve"... And I'm thinking: Whoa! When did he learn that there are numbers past ten? Wowee, he's counting past 10 by himself!
And Tamlin continues, "Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen" ...And I'm still impressed. Go, Go, Go! Then, he fumbles and skips to "Seventeen, Seventeen, Seventeen" ... with a bit of help he gets to nineteen. Finally he finishes with an enthusiastic "Twenty!"

My son nearly counted to twenty, and I have no idea where he picked this skill up. When I shared his accomplishment with Brian, he suggested that he learned it from Sesame Street. So, T.V. is helping my kiddo learn. (I know they aren't counting this high in pre-school yet). Awesome.