Striptease

Well, after getting evacuated from Emerald Isle two days before the end of our vacation due to an utterly lame hardly-hurricane, and surviving 8 (or was it 800?) hours of Forced Family Fun in a Jeep That Suddenly Felt Like A Matchbox Car, we came home to no cable. The cable man came today to fix it, and thank goodness, really, because who would want to miss this? After Cody's "nap," we were all out on the deck, shucking corn for tonight's dinner, when all of a sudden Cody said, "Can I go in the pool pool please? It is NOT the North Carolina pool. It is SMALLER than the North Carolina pool. Can I go swimming in it?" I said sure, and got up to go get his stuff. And once again, he just started stripping. By the time I got to the hose, he was naked as a jaybird. I filled the pool a little (the water was freezing!) and asked if it was enough. Cody's response:

"It is not! Please keep going, Mommy!" And so we did.

His caption: "I just surfed this tiny little righteous wave, Mom!"

Speaking of stripping, Cordelia has graduated to having her baby tub inside the big tub, because she's become such a gifted splasher. Cody, seeing this for the first time, decided he wanted to join the fun. Immediately.

It's kind of cute -- and will make bathtime a little easier for us, with them both in the same place!

Beach pictures are coming, I promise. But we have to sort through something like 400 of them, and I'm trying to use my evenings finishing a few freelance projects before I go back to my "real" job next week. Bear with us!

But in the meantime, before I forget, a few cute little verbal flourishes Cody has recently added: "a little bit," "in fact," and "the problem is." In context:

"That wave was a little bit righteous! These waves make me a little bit nervous, Mom!"

"Dad. The problem is, this block is stuck under the couch and I can't reach it. Can you please help me to get it? You might need to use the vacuum attachment tubes!"

"Mommy, in fact I think I see some storm clouds over there! There is a storm about to blow in!"

His language, diction, syntax, and sentence structure are seriously amazing. He tells long-winded tales, sings complicated songs, and has all his verb tenses down pat -- even irregular ones. He hears them once, that's it. It's freakish. And awesome.

And one more thing -- now that he has the Sinatra "Coffee Song" completely memorized (my favorite is when he bellows, "Oh, you could percolate the ocean in Brazil!") he has added the percussion to his vocal stylings. So this morning, walking around the farmers' market, he is up in the backpack singing, "No tea (ba-ba-ba-da-BAH) nor tomato juice (ba-be-da-BAH); you'll see (ba-ba-ba-da-BAH) no potato juice (ba-be-da-BOW!)..." and so forth. The best is his total lack of self-consciousness. He just sings away at the top of his voice.

On key. In tune. Ok, I'm done.