this many cookies

Will has a good start on learning his numbers. He can tell you how old he is (one), likes to read books about numbers of things, and even has a number jigsaw puzzle that he can do. We've started small, been trying to teach him the numbers, one, two and three: he understands when he has three, two, and one minute(s) left before he has to get out of the bath; can count the number of strikes until you're out; and knows that when mom or dad give him to the count of three for him to do/stop doing something, when we get to "three" it is time to laugh in our face and continue to disobey.

Anyway, with his hands, Will can do "one" ok but when we show him the number of fingers for the other numbers, he gets confused and doesn't quite have the precise motor control to do them. So usually, when we count to three together, he shows "one", then just his whole hand for any other numbers greater than one. You can see this when he's counting to three in "Take me out to the ballgame".

But he's such a smart boy that he has discovered a way to communicate the number two. I think he first did this with Grandpa when we last visited Lincoln, but I'm not sure he actually made the connection between "showing us two" and the meaning behind the number until this most recent event.

Will always gets a cookie as he's finishing a meal (except breakfast; yes, I have been known to give Will cookies after breakfast, I have been scolded and I no longer do this). If he finishes that cookie and wants another, we make him take one bite of something he hadn't finished from dinner first. It's a good deal that he understands and he usually goes for it. Last week we did this as we normally do and I asked him if he wanted another cookie. His response:



Two. Two cookies.

I told him he could have two cookies if he ate two bites of chicken or whatever, and he did. So he got two. Then he wanted two more.



I was so excited that he understood the concept of two that I just kept giving him cookies each time he asked for two more. Erin was there and she passively approved. They are just little graham-cracker bites anyway.

When he finally was finished (or, more appropriately, when I thought he needed to not eat anymore cookies), I showed him how to do "ten" because he had eaten at least that many cookies. So now sometimes he does this when I ask him if he wants another cookie: