The. Greatest. Toy. Ever.

So Eddie's discovered something great. Something amazing. Something that can fill his days and nights with fun and excitement.

And it came from the Dollar Store.

What is this miracle? A calculator. More specifically, according to Eddie, a calculator that adds and subtracts. (For the record, it also multiplies and divides and I think even calculates square roots. That's of little interest to him. I, however, am amazed to see that he can pick up for a buck essentially the same machine my Dad bought in the early '70s for aout $70. Actually, it's better in many respects. Ahh, the ever-declining price of technology!)

Eddie views this thing as his own, personal miracle machine. It has given me some respite from constantly being asked to add increasingly large numbers for him. (Kid, I became a journalist for a reason and it wasn't because I was good at math.) However, now I'm getting peppered with questions like, "Wow! Mom, did you know that 1,100 plus 1,100 equals 2,200? You did? Wow. That's a really big number isn't it?" And on. And on. All of this because his preschool teacher started the 100 Club for kids who can count to 100 by 1s, 5s and 10s. Curses for actually getting my kid interested in math!

The good news is that if this trend continues, I'll not have to worry about him getting some girl pregnant in high school....