Grandma's place: Counting to 10 and 200

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Counting to 10 and 200

Adell scouring the weeds

What? For me?

Grandma's Easter Egg Hunt each year is a mental challenge for me: I have to count kids and eggs and multiply by 10 and be ready to change the count depending on who shows up and what eggs get permanently hidden.
It's been my rule-of-thumb each year to hide 10 eggs for each child, mostly because I can multiply by 10 easier than 12 or 15.
And as the grandkid count has climbed, I've found it generally works out given the number of plastic eggs I have to buy and the candy I have to divide.
This year, we added Hannah to the main hunt. She was supposed to be in the baby field but she saw all the other kids run off down the hill so she did to.
I had given everybody strict instructions, "Only pick up 10, no more. If you pick up more than 10, someone won't get theirs," I told the ernest little faces waiting for the "Go!" signal.
They were off, dashing this way and that to fill their decorated bags. (The Easter Bunny had been clever this year, hiding some eggs in the weeds and the trees.)
Hannah got right into the spirit of things, picking up her eggs, oohing over the pink ones and dropping them into her bag. She didn't waste any time and soon had 10, according to mom, but she just kept on adding.
"Do you want to tell her she's done?" her mom asked me.
No way. I know better than to tangle with a 2-year-old who's on an egg roll.
So while Adell and Fiona and Alyson and Conner and Kyle and Emily and Max and Ellie and Brock and Isaac and the others all minded the rule, we let Hannah carry on. (Later, when we needed eggs for the late-comers, we raided Hannah's bag a bit so we'd come out even, but for the most part we let her get more than her fair share.)
After all, we didn't take into account that Hannah — though she understands the value of free candy — can't yet count to 10.