The Journal Times Online - Racine, Wisconsin

The rubber duckie was dead to him. The plastic tugboat, the blue hippo and the scooper thing shaped like a shell had all outlived their usefulness.

They had served their time in the bath valiantly, but Sean was no longer amused. So we found some new tub toys to keep him busy while being scrubbed.

The bag o’ letters and numbers became an instant hit. Get them wet and they stick to the tub walls. That’s the intended use, anyway. He preferred to hand them to us, one by one.

It’s a serious test of coordination to wield a washcloth while grabbing a wet foam "L", especially when you’re not given time to put it down before you’re expected to grab the "S," "T," "3" and "7". As someone whose brain is allergic to multitasking, the only way I could retain my sanity was to name out loud each letter or number as he handed it over.

For months, I cycled through that disjointed alphabet. The boy was always quiet during this show, which was a victory. Near bedtime, noise usually meant crankiness.

But I wished we had waited till he was older to buy a toy like that, till he could learn something from it. By the time he could understand what he was playing with, I figured, he’d have thrown the letters on the bonfire pile with the blue hippo.

Then one day, as I mustered the enthusiasm for my 837th bath-time monologue, Sean picked up a blue 9 from among the pile and stared at it for a second.

"NINE!" he said for most of West Racine to hear.

What was that? Must’ve been daydreaming. That sounded a lot like ... "NINE!"

I lavished him with praise, the whole time convinced it was a coincidence. This was, after all, the same toddler who exclaims "Dada!" when he sees pictures of me — or pictures of authors inside book jackets or even candidates’ faces on campaign literature.

Time to expose the cruel hoax. I held up a Q.

"What’s this, Sean?"

"COO!"

Close enough. You pass.

In the past several weeks, he has mastered most of the letters and numbers. Bath time is more of a two-way refresher quiz than a monologue now.

That’s what Sean learned. What I learned is kids are a long-term investment. Whatever we as parents plant in their heads today won’t necessarily germinate today or this month or even this year.

Someday, that will mean following the advice of those sternly worded public-service announcements and repeatedly hammering home messages about staying away from drugs, sex or Vikings fans. For now, it’s just encouraging to know we can pour some water and watch the seeds of knowledge grow.

I recommend warm, soapy water.

By Mike Moore