A bath like no other bath

Some of you may have given baths to little boys before. Some of you have not. For both of these groups of people you will either nod your head understandingly, or shake your head in disbelief at the wonders of it all.

Andrew and I generally take a shower every day. I clean him all up, then I step out and plug the drain so that he can play in the water.

Sometime last week, Andrew took a bath with "Datty", and they had the bubble mat/machine in there, so now bubbles ("bauh-bows!") are the latest obsession. Not just playing with them, but eating them as well (always followed by an enthusiastic "ucky!", and then another mouthful as big as the first). So now whenever I begin to draw the bath for him, he begins his shouts of "bauh-bows bauh-bows bauh-bows!!" holding my bodywash in hand. The thing is, one shot of bubbles isn't enough. Well, partially because he eats and pops so many of them, but also because...well, ask anyone, and there's no such thing as too many bubbles.

Then there's the Pee-Factor. Andrew has watched Greg pee, so now he knows what's going on when he does it himself. All of a sudden, Andrew will stand up in the bath, look down with great concentration, and begin to pee. "Pee!" he shouts at me, looking exuberant. As one can imagine, by the time that he is done with his bath, ("outie?"), he is now so covered with soap and pee-infused water that he needs to be rinsed again. I run the shower for a few seconds, while he tries to sit back down in the draining bubbles and I firmly hold his slippery little body up in the clean water. Then I carefully stand him on the bathmat (which, of course, is soaked by now from any and all splashing and the forbidden throwing of toys out of bath, as well as any washcloths), and reach for his towel. This must be done all in one deft motion or else he takes off, looking for the truck he left by the side of the tub ("Tuck!"). No matter how many times I practice this move, however, it is far too often that I'm just not fast enough, and -- BANG! -- he's slipped and much weeping ensues. However, "oshey" generally helps the situation, so by the time he's all lotioned up, he's forgotten the trama and is ready to head downstairs for a pre-nap treat of "chee-chees" (Cheerios) with "oney".

All of this probably took about 3 minutes to read, but don't be decieved -- the entire procedure takes at least an hour. All for the sake of a sweet smelling fellow. It's worth it to have him all fuzzy and clean, but oh my goodness! Someday though, he'll be giving his own baby a bath and will call me up "Mom, you will never guess..." I'll smile and say "Tell me, but I probably can."