Numbers 3

On January 31st, James and I had our first joint parent teacher conference with Miss Dulce.  It was very positive and she said Jakey is getting ready for literacy.  I’m assuming this means correctly identifying letters given his current penmanship?  He’s also started transitioning to the next “big boy” classroom where apparently it’s much more fun but they nap an hour later, an hour less, and you no longer get a daily paper with all the details of his day.

In any case, he has started to see “numbers”… everywhere.  Just for clarity’s sake, numbers are code for both numbers and letters.  At the Stanford Mall this weekend he stopped in front of a big sign with the price of oranges on it, “Numbers!”  On TV we see “Numbers!”  When driving in the car, the Meineke car shop’s sign really got his attention, “Numbers!”  And in the morning he likes to get one of James’ books off the table and show me “the number hammer” (all T’s that he can see in the text).  James says he’s also been using his finger to follow along with the words when they read books.

By far my favorite was when we were in the parking lot on our way to Whole Paycheck.  We passed by “DressBarn” and it was like he was struck by lightening, “Numbers!”

Now I must pause for a moment and ask the unrelated, but entirely reasonable question, why would anyone name a store DressBarn?

Can you imagine the corporate conference room during that discussion?  On calendar it probably said, “Store Name Meeting.”  They all get around the conference table and someone throws-out the idea, “DressBarn.”  Oh yes.  Yes.  Love it.  Dresses– that’s what we sell.  Barn.  Women love barns.  Cows love barns.  Women love being associated with cows.  I think we have a winner…

I still can’t comprehend it.