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We currently have a ‘baby pool’ set up in our backyard for the kiddos to play in. I say ‘baby pool’ in quotes because it’s not really very small – it’s actually 8 feet across and 18 inches deep. Hardly a pool for a baby. Nevertheless, the kids have been having a blast in it over the past few weeks.

Yesterday, Shawn filled up the pool and climbed in with the kids to play. They LOVED having Daddy in ‘their’ domain and proceeded to jump, climb, and splash all over Daddy as they shrieked and squealed in glee.

I don’t remember how it started, but somewhere in the course of the fun, Daddy and son started the “Oh, yeah?!?” game.

Ethan would do something, to which Shawn would respond, “oh, yeah?” and then do the same thing bigger or better or faster or harder. To which Ethan would respond in kind, with his own “oh, yeah?” and try to beat what Daddy had just done. This went on for the rest of the time we were in the pool with Ethan taking a sip of his drink, then Shawn saying, “Oh, yeah?” and taking a sip of his own drink. Then Ethan would say, “oh, yeah?” and take an even bigger sip out of his sippy cup, and on and on.

The highlight of the day, though, was towards the end of our time outside. Ethan had taken to splashing Daddy (and of course, Daddy was splashing back) when the “oh, yeah?” game started back up. Finally, Shawn decided to make a big splash by falling back in the water in a sort of ‘Nestea plunge’ from a sitting position. Not to be outdone, Ethan yelled, “OH, YEAH?!?!” and proceeded to hurl his little body from a standing position into a full-out backwards plunge into the water. He made a beautiful splash right before submersing his entire little body, face and all, under water. He came up sputtering and grinning as Shawn and I were laughing hysterically at our boy.

Gee, I wonder where he gets his competitive spirit…

“Oh, yeah?!?”