Slice of life – 3/12/09 (Thursday)

“You ready to take a bath?” I ask Ander, kneeling on a kitchen table chair.

Ander turns in his seat and jauntily jumps down to the floor, grabs his car from the table and hugs it to his chest, turns to me, “Yep!” and then turns and runs toward the bathroom.

I seize on his willingness (Last night the inquiry brought rounds of wails “No! No!”) and follow him.

“Not Mommy’s bathroom, Ander. Ander -- this one. You can take a bath by yourself tonight,” I use the tone that makes if sound as if this is a big treat. He’s onto me though and I see his protest start to take shape. I head him off at the pass, “Do you want to take your cars?”

At the mention of cars, he is reminded of the fun to be had in the tub and is ready to go again.

“Yep.”

We head into the bath and I run the water. He starts to climb in.

“Whoa! Let’s take off your clothes first.” Off comes the shirt, shoes, socks, pants and diaper. He tries to climb in holding his cars. “Here, I’ll hold your cars.”

“Yep.” He hands them to me, climbs over the rim and turns immediately, apparently worried that I would somehow run out of the room with his cherished possessions. “Ca! Ca!” I hand them over.

He drives them under the water, on the rim and all over as I follow him with handfuls of water, trying to put them on his head to moisten his hair for the wash. Shampoo next and I begin to lather as he lays on his belly.

Suddenly, he decides he needs to use the potty. “Poo, poo.”

“You need to go poo poo?”(we are not there yet, but we’re using the words and getting the concepts down.

“Yep.”

I debate – dripping child with shampoo halfway down his back or try to talk him out of it.

“Let’s wait until after the bath.”

“Poo, poo.”

Resigned, knowing a larger scene will unfold if I stick to my original strategy, I help him out. He maneuvers himself onto the mini plastic potty. I wait. He points at me, “Momma. Poo, poo.” And points to the toilet. Ugh.

As soon as I settle on, he jumps up and says, “done” though there is no evidence of this in the potty and gets back into the tub.

The rest of the bathtime is filled with splashing and kicking, playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain, playing doggie with the puppy wash mit as I try to lather him up. I’m wet and he points to me, “Mess.” He says. “yes, mommy is messy. Ander made mommy messy.”

“Yep.”

“Are you all done?”

“Yep.” He gets out and immediately lays down on the tub mat.

“Night, night.” This is the game we play after each bath. I cover him with the towel, pat him down and say, “Night, night.”

He looks at me, “Mommy, night night!” and pats the floor next to him. Ugh.

I lay down and he gets up and heaves the towel on me. Pats me hard as he says, “Night, night. Night, night.”

A moment of silence where he hears Shane in the kitchen grinding coffee beans as he prepares the coffee maker for tomorrow morning’s brew. And he’s off running naked down the hallway to the kitchen.