I knew he was smart, but WOW!

All of my children are amazing... but anyone who knows them knows that, right? Lately it has just been hitting me over the head over and over again how lucky I am to have such fun kids in my family.

Teagan just absorbs information like it was water going into a sponge. School is rarely really difficult for her because she understands things to clearly and so easily.

Garrett is unafraid to try new things and often easily overcomes the hardest things just because he was told it was going to be tough and he wants to prove it otherwise. We recently heard of a scout who earned every merit badge possible, and now Garrett is determined to earn every belt loop and arrow point possible. It's a tough task, but that only makes him all the more determined. Emmett is just the most understanding and patient little man I have ever seen and he loves his Owen so deeply that I almost want to cry each time I see how attached he is and how much he truly loves his big brother.

And my Owen...he is all boy, all the time, always going... that third kid syndrome really sticks with him. He is loud, he is fast, he's sneaky, he is demanding (all things are generally in a good way)...and man is he smart!

We've known he was a smart guy, but lately he has just been blowing our minds with his mind capabilities.

Last month as he and I were having our monthly birth day talk - a lightning bolt hit him across the head and in less than 1 second he realized how to count by 5's, 10's, 20's, 100's and 1,000's. It literally was that quick. He hit his head with his hand and said, "Ugh, WHY didn't I know that?" and was so pleased with himself that he could hardly wait to show his daddy in the morning what he could do. Before then he could only count by 1's and 2's. He made me promise not to tell Scott before he had shown him. As he was trying it out for the first time he was so excited he was bouncing in his seat, smiling ear to ear, and giggling between each number. That alone made me think "wow, this kid might have a brain for numbers."

A few days later, we were playing a card game and he started tallying up his points from the 4 cards in his hand... and as he was counting he was keeping track perfectly. He would start with the highest number and then add the next highest and so on. As he added he tapped the table to keep track of his numbers. It amazed me how he could have a 9 card and be tapping 8 times to add the 8 card and not lose track of how many times he had tapped. He was thinking of two different numbers at the same time - the number he was counting up to, and the number of taps he was doing. He was a multiple number thinker... wow, again.

Then a couple of days ago he was trying to explain to me how he knew that 3 plus 11 was 14. I haven't started doing any real math with him, so I wanted to know how he came to the right answer. He tried to explain to me that it was just like counting from 0 and just adding, but instead he was starting at 1...or something like that, I still am not quite sure how he got there, but Scott understood him, and he understood himself, so I guess it was working for him. He said it was just like how 2 + 10 is 12, just from 1...whatever that means! (again, it had something to do with the 0, according to him)

And then tonight he was reading books before bed time and I walked in to say prayers with him, but first started to straighten his room a little. He was collecting his books that were strewn on his bed and said mom, I read 5 before you got here, and then I just read 4 more, so that is 9 books all together. Without missing a beat...no finger counting, no counting the books, just a straight sentence. I asked him how he came to that number so quickly and he looked up at me and said so plainly, "Mom, it's just like 5 + 5, just one less." He was doing reverse operations in his head! I really need to start him on a math program of some sort to try and foster this love of numbers in him!