Scene: Harriet�s kitchen at breakfast time. Harriet is sipping coffee and reading the New York Times. Mr. Spy is catching up on his website reading. AJ is listening to Eric Idle reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

AJ: Mommy, I have a secret for you. [AJ�s secrets are always requests for things a little out of the ordinary that he thinks might be denied. I think it�s his way of making them seem especially important.]

Harriet: What is it?

AJ: [Tiptoes over and whispers in Harriet�s ear] Can I take a bath so I can play with my whistle?

Harriet: [On the brink of laughter until she realizes that �whistle� is not a euphemism]. Sure! Why not?

* * * * *

AJ has a new toy: a water whistle. We picked it up earlier this week, a sort of bribe for accompanying me through the tedious process of finding clothes for both of us for our upcoming vacation. This particular water whistle is clear plastic with a green plastic mouthpiece and pitch letters written on colorful spots up and down the side. You fill it with water and then slide the end in and out to adjust the water level and therefore the pitch. AJ is charmed by both the ability to change pitch and the ability to make great swooping glissandi. He is playing �Old MacDonald Had a Farm� as I type this.

�Whoa, Mommy, cool!�

I venture in to see. He has set down his whistle in favor of a bubble blower. He has blown a softball-sized bubble and is holding it in his hand.

�Did you know that the lighter you blow, the bigger you can make the bubbles? And when I blow hard the bubbles are really, reeeally tiny.� He scrunches up his voice to show just how tiny they can be. Then he returns to whistling.

Before he gets out of the bath, I play him some songs he likes. �How do you do that, Mommy?� I show him how the letter names are the same as the ones on the piano. He remembers how to play �Linus and Lucy.� We sing it together. �C-D-E, E-D-C, D, C, C-D-E-E.� Then he tries it, a drunken slidy version of his favorite song.

�You did it!�

�Yay!�

AJ has achieved more before 8:30 a.m. than I am likely to accomplish all day.

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