Perhaps he was, at some time in the past, but was adopted before the show began. He could well have made a big impression on Madam Foster, making it easy for her to pretend to be him. :)

^______^ People who study how children learn have found out some pretty awesome things. When children are learning to count, and they realize that they can use other abstract objects as counters, they start learning how to "chunk" numbers (for example, we "chunk" five on our hands because we know we have 5 fingers). Artie might be exemplifying that stage, or he might not have the motor skills to do it properly (so he holds up a 3 and a 1).

What I find most fascinating and amazing is that the writers and storyboarders of Fosters take such things into consideration. It's such a small detail, but it's so true to real life! They really pay attention to children for what they are, and bring them to life that way. It makes the show all the more endearing for me. :D

Yeah, but... Bloo is five years old, and he has plenty of motor skills...

That could be true, but personally, I think it's because holding up four fingers on one hand that only has four fingers would look kind of wierd. The viewers (human beings, I hope) are used to seeing five fingers, so if Arty held up four fingers on his four fingered hand, the viewers might think he held up five fingers, especially if they weren't paying attention, because they hold up all the fingers on their hand to show the number five, not four. That's just what I think. You could still be right. I hope I explained that well enough.

Who the jigglewad is Arty? I can't remember...

Um...he's the green IF from I Only Have Surprise for You--the one who said, "I'm fo' yea's ol'."

Arty raised a few questions that have been bugging me for a while. I know he wasn't real, but it made me wonder - if they're having a "birthday party" for him, does that mean IFs age? I know in "Big Picture" the friends in the photo look exactly the same over a 20-year time span, but at the same time in "Mac Daddy" wasn't there a scene where Bloo and Mac were pictured as elderly?

And yet somehow mac still had brown hair.

No that was just Bloo's mind going all wonko. From what i've seen the ydon't age physically (how else do you get a big baby?) but would somewhat mentally as well as just numerically.

::grins:: But Bloo doesn't have fingers. That's such an interesting point though, that Bloo is only five years old. I have a feeling that the "age" of an IF doesn't matter as much as what kind of mental capacity its creator had in mind. Mac probably made sure (at the tender age of 3, such a precocious child) that Bloo would have mental capability beyond his "age." And while I think that the IFs mature over the years, I don't think they're necessarily "mature." Young Man River's IF is a brat just like him!

Arty's "age" is rather moot anyway, seeing as he's not a real IF, but I'm still impressed at how the animators captured an aspect of human behavior. So cute!

Well, he seems to be able to grow fingers whenever he wants to. He has them at one point in Hiccyburp to make " signs.

But yeah, I see what you mean, Eduardo, or cheese, for instance.