Heard and Observerd #43

We are currently spending the week at the beach -- Emerald Isle, NC.  I have lots to share about our trip and will do so when we get back to town.  But first, I have another "Heard and Observed".

The day before we left for our trip, we did an ice cream meet-up with my friend Heather and her kids at Cold Stone on Sunday afternoon.  Heather and Ian have a great relationship and ever since Ian was 3, she quizzes him on various math problems.  9 times out of 10, Ian gets it right -- usually coming up with the answer pretty quickly in his head.  It is actually very impressive to watch.

SIDE NOTE:  How this even started that Heather thought Ian could handle these math problems?   When I was potty training Ian (just after turning 3), he had an accident and I was changing him out of the dirty underwear and into a clean pair.  I was simultaneously on the phone with Heather and made the offhanded remark that we were now down another pair of underwear.  But it's ok, we had 25 pairs and lost 3 in the last 2 days.  Ian said, without missing a beat, "that means we only have 22 pairs left."   Heather couldn't believe what she was hearing and asked me how in the world Ian could do that math.  I didn't think it was anything special and was under the impression that all kids could do math like that.  And that's how Ian's relationship started with Heather asking him math problems to solve.

Back to Sunday -- Here's the conversation:

Heather:  Ian, what's 96-12?

Ian:  84.  The same year that Detroit Tigers took the pennant.

Heather:  WHAT!?!?!?  Really?

Jeff:  Yes, Ian's right.  They won in 1984.

Heather:  OMG!  That's crazy.

Heather then moves off to math and begins asking baseball questions.  She is quite impressed with Ian's knowledge of everything baseball. 

Heather:  Ian, who is pitching the Nats game on Wednesday?

Ian (thinking about who has pitched recently and who is left to pitch in the rotation):  What day is today?

We all busted out laughing.  Ian is like a mini-Rainman with all his math and baseball knowledge. Honestly, I'd think he was on the Autism spectrum if he wasn't so social and had good eye-contact.  But when it came to something so easy as what the day of the week was, he didn't know.  It was pretty funny.  We all had a good laugh.