And Then?

At the mature age of nineteen months, Isaac has limited diction:

"WOW!" Said whenever he finds something fascinating, like the camera, which is followed by loud screaming when I won't let him play with it. It's adorable for about two seconds, though.

"What's THAT?" Said in regards to just about everything, including people.

"DADDY!" Sometimes he even points at Tim while saying this. Mostly, he points at the wall, the floor, the chair. . .

"NO!" Said loudly, whenever I am doing something he is not allowed to do. Mostly when I try to take my clothes out of my drawer.

"OH SHIT." I did not teach him this.

"Ass?" I did not teach him this either, but for some reason he says it whenever he answers the phone. Also, whenever Sarah goes into her bedroom and shuts the door, he stands outside and knocks, saying, "Ass? Ass?" in the most pathetic little voice. I'm not sure what that means, either.

Otherwise . . . The entire family has been at the NC coast for the past week, just a few houses down from the Casewell lighthouse as well as the house dad used to visit as a kid. The beach is far from stunning, but it is familiar and non-populated (it has about as many people as it does seagulls. Maybe ten?) We rented The Linger Longer II, which has a postage stamp's worth more space than The Linger Longer I, but also about twelve less people as, sadly, we could not synchronize our vacation dates with Engeland this year. It is also directly on the beach, as opposed to across the street.

Thus far we've spent a great deal of time tanning and walking, including our annual 5 mile trek to the pier and back. To the bewilderment of our spying neighbors, we have also taken our beach chairs into the water (as usual), dragged a fire pit and air mattress out onto the beach and burned driftwood for a few hours, dug several mammoth-size caves (actually, that was all Noah), and brought home, to date: a baby shark, a turtle (could be fined up to $10,000 and thrown in The Betty, as stated on the refrigerator), some kind of weird sea urchin, and the skeleton of an unidentifiable creature with spikes. When inside the house we mostly just drink coffee. . . but what else is new.