Tobias 3.0

A couple weeks ago, I was showering with Tobias 2.11, and he turned his back to me and stood with his feet lined up with mine, such that our feet alternated with each others. He then crouched down and started counting toes.

Tobais: (His left foot) "1, 2, 3, 4, 5," (My left foot) "6, 7, 8, 9, 10," (His right foot) "11, 12, 13, 14..."

At this point he lost count because the toes on his right foot had bunched up together (since he squeezed his foot between my feet), so he had to back up.

Tobias: (Restarting at his right big toe) "11, 12, 13, 14, 15..."

If you didn't catch it, here's why I was amazed: Before the age of three, he was able to recognize where he made a potential mistake, back up to a point before the mistake was made, and pick up from an arbitrary restart location.

That's right, he had created a mental checkpoint.

I had expected him to restart from the beginning, but somehow, he was able to determine where he had gone wrong, and back up just enough to correct his mistake without losing previous progress.

Then, two days ago, we were in the shower again. He (now 3.0) asked to play the same game, so this time I decided to throw in a little wrinkle to give him a bit of a challenge.

He lined up his little feet with mine the same way as before, but as he crouched down I bent over to put my hands on the outside, so our extremities lined up like so:

[My left hand] - [His left foot] - [My left foot] - [His right foot] - [My right foot] - [My right hand]

Off he went.

Tobias: (My right hand) "1, 2, 3, 4, 5," (My right foot) "6, 7, 8, 9, 10," (His right foot) "11, 12, 13, 14..." (Had the same problem as before, and restarted at his right little toe) "11, 12, 13, 14, 15..."

Me: (Sneaking my right hand in between my left hand and his left foot) "Yup, keep going..."

Tobias: (Notices me moving my right hand) "I already counted that one," (Pushes it away with his left hand and continues counting toes on my left foot with his right hand) "16, 17, 18, 19, 20!"

Me (Laughing hysterically): "Really? You've counted this one?" (Trying to sneak my right hand in again)

Tobias: (Gets a bit annoyed) "I already counted that one!" (Pushes it away again and continues with his left foot) "21, 22, 23, 24, 25," (And finally my left hand, while I was trying not to fall over laughing) "26, 27, 28, 29, 40! We have 40!"

Oh the fun we're gonna have together, my boy.