Captain Jelly Belly has been able to count to 20 for a while now, but just in the past two weeks he’s made a major mental association between numbers and quantity. He now understands that 10 is smaller than 15, and 18 is more than 12. He’s so excited by this idea that he wants to apply his new 1-20 scale to everything. The pool is “12 warm,” it is “10 windy” outside, and he has “5 juice” left in his cup.
He adorably wants to use this scale with his emotions, too. Last time we were at the mall, Sir Monkeypants asked him if he was bored, and he said, “Yes Daddy, I am 10 bored.” But when we got to the toy store, he exclaimed, “Now I am ZERO bored!!” When he falls down, if I ask him if he is okay, he might say, “Don’t worry Mommy, I am only 2 hurt.” Or, when Gal Smiley is really bugging him, or I make him do something he doesn’t want to, he says, “I am twenty mad!”
The best part is that at night, before bed, he likes to tell me, “Mommy? I love you twenty.”
TurtleHead 
That’s twenty cute.
Awwww, that is pretty cute. Even touched my cold heart!
That is absolutely hilarious!
One thing I wanna do when I have kids is paint a big numberline around the walls (subject to approval by She Who Must Be Obeyed, of course). Start at zero in the middle of one wall, and go back to negative whatever-will-fit and up to positive whatever-will-fit. On the top of the line each gap between numbers will be divided into 10 increments, and on the bottom into 8.
And then I will sit back and wait for the questions. And then I’ll sit back and watch as understanding grows. First, basic numbers. Then the concept of zero. Then negatives. Then once the decimals and basic fractions kick in, I will smile as my little darling’s mind is blown.
I believe the alphabet will also need to be there.
When I was a kid, my mom put the alphabet on the wall, and I’m sure that’s why I love writing now. And my bedroom had a drop ceiling with 1 foot square tiles — I still remember figuring out a lot of basic math through those tiles. Like how you can calculate the number of tiles by multiplying the length by the width. My little mind was totally blown by these revelations, and I’m pretty sure that’s why math came pretty easily to me too.
However, never did I do anything as cute as the 20 Scale of Everything.
That’s so great. You need to tape that or something, because he’ll want to see it later, for sure.
To say this is cute is damning with faint praise. This is straight-on awesome. It’s interesting that he also seems to understand the distinction needed to use his scale to measure positive things (12 warm) and negative things (0 bored).
I can only fantasize that my own child will be as creative. I am literally flipping out reading this about your child — I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle it when Mr Excitement does something similar.