The power of FOUR

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz

Another one of those afternoons, making my way through the school pick up line, waiting for my baby. Oh, there she is, no longer a ‘real’ baby. She comes bouncing to the car with her loaded backpack and dance bag. “Do you want to drive today?” No, I’ll let you do it today Mom.

We are off to the Dr’s for a scheduled shot. Her day was great, as it usually is. Her car snack today? An almost brand new box of Cheese Its.

I look over and see that she has neatly stacked FOUR cheese-its and swiftly all four are plopped into her mouth.

I laugh…and notice that she again does the same thing. FOUR.

Four is her number.

I ask her about this and she says she must do all things so that they add up to four.

Again, she pulls out four cheese-its and silently counts as she puts one in her mouth…then two…then three…then four. Then she starts over again.

This brings me to giggles. I try to drive and still watch her work on those crackers.
I ask for some.
How many does she give me? FOUR.
NOT three. NOT five.
She tells me that “if I don’t eat them in the correct way, then I can’t partake because I will mess things up.”

This gives me more than the giggles. I am in full on belly laugh while driving. and while eating my FOUR crackers.

I inquire further, because I must know the method to her madness.
“What if you have a partial cracker, a cracked cracker?”
“Well, it depends on how big it still is…and what my mood is too. Sometimes I just save those for last.”
Again, I am laughing.

I reach over for the box of crackers, trying to get MY hand in there.
She pulls it back and states: “you won’t do it right, let me”
again, I am given my FOUR crackers.

I know, this is some form of OCD. I know we all have ‘our thing’….and I realize that this is something ELSE that she and I can laugh at.

I ask more questions. And get more silly answers that make perfect sense to her.
Pretty soon, we are both laughing.

But still, she is counting. One. Two. Three. Four….
and all is right in her world.

25 thoughts on “The power of FOUR”

  2. Yep, we all have our thing 🙂 I'm wondering, though, what happens if she's down to the bottom of the box, and there are only two left?? Does she always have a spare box for those occasions? I'm never going to be able to look at Cheez Its in the same way 😉 Thank you for opening my eyes, Linds!

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  3. First, I LOVE the make-over!! Well, except that you took the pictures down. :(Stud had so many of these little OCD things, it's insane!! He eats Cheez-Its by the box, and now I'm going to have to ask him if there's something special he does when he eats them.One that he does in the car is that the volume on my radio can ONLY be set to an even number. If it's an odd number, he freaks out! So weird!!

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  4. We must have the same form of OCD but my number is 3. And I like for the middle to be different from the outsides. For example, M & Ms. When I toss a few in my mouth, it will be groups of three and the colors will form a 'sandwich'. Green for the bread, yellow for the meat. Or yellow for the bread, red for the meat. Etc. 🙂

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  6. My daughter told me about her OCD and having to touch things. I teased her about it until one day I caught myself walking through Kohl's and touching the clothes as I walked by. Guess I know where she gets it from. Now we tease each other!

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  8. What an absolutely wonderful family 🙂 BTW, you tell me you have never been to an apple orchard? We have 2 apple trees in back which are pretty small, and the deer always eat our apples, and you know about the big old tree across the street, which has given me a zillion apples for pies, jam, sauce. Apples are a very big deal in New York state. BUT, when I had a job one winter, down in Miami? There was a grapefruit tree out back…and a swimming pool! Wow!!!! Seems a lot more exotic to me than apples, but then again, you would be used to that, wouldn't you? 🙂

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  9. Cheez-Its must be the national food of choice for the teen crowd. And yes, we all have our OCDs…just as long as she doesn't try the Rule of Four with steak or carrots, I think she'll be fine! 😉

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  11. I think we all have at least a few of these little quirks. My favorite snack? Newman's Own Pretzel Sticks. And I MUST eat all the broken ones before any long unbroken ones.I must say you are pretty observant to pick up on the \”must be four\” thing. Tell Linds I completely understand. And she is wise to pass up the driving chance in order to enjoy her Cheese-its, four at a time.

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  14. Such a cutie!!!!! I don't know what you will do when both of your girls are grown and gone…. It happens –and it's not always fun for US!!!!So –four is her number… Guess you had better cut her meat into 4 pieces, give her 4 peas and 4 cookies for dessert… Oops—guess not!!!Cute post.Hugs,Betsy–who loves Cheez-Its –but doesn't eat them now… Sigh!

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  18. Hello? Smartees…remember those? i can only eat them in bunches of 7….four on one side, three on the other.do not question these things.really.just don't.and now….dammit. i am craving Cheezits. can i get them here? no.pffft.

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  23. Gosh, I'm so relieved there are folks just as weird as I am out there, ha ha! My problem is 8. Everything has to be a multiple of 8, or add up to 8, or have 8 in it. Volumes can only be at 4, 8, 16, 18 (because 1X8=8), or 24 (2X4=8). If I want to buy a package of chicken, I have to find one with a price that either has the number 8 in it, or somehow have 8 worked into it. You have absolutely no idea how badly I freaked out when I found out we'd be getting married on 8/8/8. I seriously thought it was a joke at first. I need help.

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