Fearless

Nicholas is, as of last night, officially more advanced in the water than his father.  (That is, if he wasn't already.)

He was taking his bath, and having a jolly good time playing with a plastic ship captain who has the magical ability to jump off the side of the tub and into the water, so long as you say "wheeeee!" when he does it.  So Nicholas was doing that, and for some reason I started tickling his neck, just a little, when he last splashed the captain into the water.  He scrunched his head up and tucked it into his chest, and then couldn't go any further because his head was on the side of the tub.  So I stopped.  He looked up at me with a big grin and water dripping from his nose, and then immediately started to fold himself over again to put his head back in the water.

Eureka!  Of course, I called Sarah over to watch, and she noted with glee what he was doing.  He really seemed to like it, and just wanted to keep doing it, as he usually does with a new skill that he discovers.  So I let him, until he got upset because he has not yet mastered keeping his mouth closed while dunking himself.  Maybe next week.  (There was, by the way, no soap yet in the tub.  I'm squeamish enough that I probably wouldn't have allowed him to do that if we'd already started the scrubbing portion of bath time, even though all the baby soaps claim to be tear-free.)