I was sitting on our deck, when my neighbor’s five year old son came over for a visit. He was very excited to show me how high he can count. With the exception of him disrespecting the number thirteen, I listened to him count to twenty. Proud of himself, he counted to twenty again, and again.

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I tried to encourage him to include the number thirteen, but for some reason, he just didn’t like the number. Around the tenth go around, my husband, Marc, joined me on the deck. Excited to have a new audience, the little boy excitedly asked Marc if he wanted to hear him count.

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Marc, of course replied yes. We closed our eyes, laid back in our lounge chairs, and listened again as the little guy once again counted to twenty. By the third round, Marc, having a little less patience then me, decided to mix things up a bit. “Hey, can you count backwards?” he asked the little boy.

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“YES!” He exclaimed. “One, two, three..”

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“That is forwards,” Marc corrected. Can you count backwards?”

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Again, he exclaimed, “YES! One, two, three…”

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“You are still counting forwards,” Marc gently corrected. “Can you try counting backwards?”

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This time the little boy started losing his patience. “I am counting backwards! WATCH!” he yelled. Again, he counted, “One, two, three…” but, this time, Marc and I opened our eyes, and watched him walking backwards across our deck as he counted.