Splish Splash

LJ has graduated to the bathtub. Yes, he is almost 11 months old and he has just started taking a bath in the bathtub in the last few days. See, things were working out just fine when we bathed him in his little tub in the kitchen sink. He’d play with whatever toy we put in his hand and RJ would scrub him clean all while standing up relatively straight. So, why mess with a good thing? The good thing had been getting more complicated. It started with a little thing – like LJ wanting to play with the sink stopper. Big deal…we let him play with it. Then LJ wanted to play with the dish brush. We let him play with that. We’d chuckle as LJ would play with the squirt hose…”oh, isn’t it hilarious how he puts that in his mouth?! He’ll sure be surprised it he actually sprays it while it is in his mouth” – ha, ha, ha! All the while, the adults are sparing themselves the agony of having to crouch over the edge of the bathtub. We decided we’d need to transition when LJ turned on the garbage disposal. It was no big deal…it’s not like he is sitting in the sink. He’s in a tub which is sitting in the sink. But, LJ was getting to nosey for the kitchen-sink bath, so we switched him to the bathtub.

LJ loves his bath! He chases his rubber ducky around and dumps water out of his cups. He doesn’t cry at all when I pour water over his head to wash and rinse his hair. He really couldn’t be more pleased. I, however, am fed up with the bat mat. We haven’t had one before, so I bought the one with 21 suction cups…guaranteed to stick to the bottom of the tub. Whatever. It looks like LJ is on a flying carpet. I’m constantly trying to shove those suction cups onto the bottom of the tub.

With the new bathing location come two changes to the night-time routine. First, LJ takes his bath at 7:00 and is in bed by 7:30. We’d been thinking he needed to go to bed a bit earlier anyway and with the need to be in a better mood for the bathing experience, we moved everything up ½ an hour. Second, I am doing the bathing now. Previously, RJ had bathed LJ almost every night. I’d step in on a handful of occasions – usually when RJ wasn’t at home, but RJ bathed LJ for 11 months! He still gets him ready for his bath and puts him in his pajamas, but I do the playing and scrubbing. I guess we are starting a new era in LJ’s life!