Impress

Tuck was eating pepperoni for lunch when he showed sincere interest in simple addition.  He spread the food across the counter, little pepperoni and "big pepperoni" (salami), and counted them all together.  Mama, I have firteen pepperonis!  You gave me ten and free, that makes firteen!  
"Yes buddy, I said, ten plus three is thirteen.  Great adding!"
But I think he heard "press" instead of plus.  He was touching each pepperoni as he added, kind of like pressing a button, and that term stuck around much longer than the greasy circles I wiped clean when he was finished eating.

More recently Tuck's been using his fingers to find sums, and scratching marks on paper for bigger numbers.  We make up stories about how many fish he and Poppy catch together or how many grubs he found this week, we add cucumber slices and Angry Birds and finger puppets and Toy Story characters and we add all the Nem&Nems he eats for dessert.
Tonight at bedtime Tucker asked to do some press problems instead of reading books, so we sat at his desk with crayons and paper and added popsicles and alligators and grapes.  As it got close to eight o'clock Tuck said Mama, this is awesome, but maybe I could get in bed now and you could scratch my back for a little moment.

I know there will be lots of little moments when Tuck needs to do quick math, to calculate a tip or to double a recipe or to confirm correct change, and I'm glad he's gaining number knowledge now.  I don't tell about his ability to add so that people will be impressed.  I don't even know if it is impressive.  But I feel, in the most unobjective way, like everything Tuck does, everything my children will ever do, is amazing.

What I do know is that there will never be enough little moments.  There will never be enough times when he wants me by his side, affirming his answers and scratching his back, so I tell about it mostly as a reference, a reminder that one time he did.