Seven I'm in Heaven!

As Madeleine and I got in the car after I picked her up from swim team, she was desperate to teach me how to play a new game.

MADELEINE: Mommy!  I want to teach you "Seven I'm In Heaven!"
ME: Okay.
MADELEINE: Okay.  So.  I'll go first.  It's good I'm going first, because it works out.
ME: Okay...
MADELEINE: So.  Okay.  I have...ONE pumpkin.  How many things will YOU have?
ME: Uh...
MADELEINE: So now you go.  You have to say you have TWO of something.
ME: Okay.  I have two apples.
MADELEINE: Okay, so how many things will you have with yours and mine?
ME: Uh, three.
MADELEINE: Okay.  I have THREE swim bags.  So I have...FIVE things.
ME: I have, um...uh...four...watches.  So I have (adding four, three, two and one in my head) ten things.
MADELEINE: Uh, no, Mommy.
ME: Don't I add all the things?
MADELEINE: No, you just add your thing and the LAST thing of mine.
ME: Okay.  I have seven things.
MADELEINE: Okay.  I have five flags.  So now I have NINE things.
ME: I have, um...six snowballs.  So I have eleven things.
MADELEINE: Okay.  I have seven.  Oh!  Seven, I'm in Heaven!

Silence.

Wait, that's the game?  I was confused.  I felt that Madeleine surely must be mis-remembering something about this game, which she had probably learned at school as part of a math exercise.

ME: So what happens now?
MADELEINE: When you have seven, you DON'T say how many things you'll have, you just say "Seven, I'm in Heaven!"
ME: Where did you learn this game?
MADELEINE: Oh!  I made it UP!

Aha.  That explains it.

ME: Oh, okay, so that's the end?
MADELEINE: Yup.  I made it up.  It's really fun!  *I* think it's really fun, but Julia thinks it's BORING.

Madeleine then had some more math wisdom for me.

MADELEINE:  Mommy?  I feel like three ALWAYS comes back on ITSELF.  So.  There are TWO cones.  You look at them, and decide you like the SECOND one better.  So, you count up to three on the cone.  ONE - starting on the SECOND cone, since you like it better, TWO, for the first cone, then you're like, (gasp!) there's only TWO CONES!  So what should my third one be?  So you do the SECOND one again.  That's how it ALWAYS comes back to itself.


I'm beginning to think Madeleine is some kind of mathematical MASTER-GENIUS.