Since writing the title of this post, this song has been in my head so I thought I would share the wealth and put it into your head too. You're welcome! :)
Since James is approaching 6 months, he is no longer taking baths on the kitchen counter in his Fisher-Price Rainforest bathtub. He has graduated to the big boy tub upstairs, and with the help of Daddy, he gets cleaned every night as part of our bed time ritual.
So a typical weeknight goes something like this:
5:30 pm: Pick up the big guy from daycare
6:00 pm: Dinner of oatmeal, a veggie (peas, carrots or sweet potatoes) and fruit for dessert
6:30 pm: Playtime with Mommy and Daddy on his play mat or in his Jumperoo or ExerSaucer
7:00 pm: Rubbing of the eyes cues that it is time for a bath!!
We try to sneak a grown up dinner in there somewhere, but once those eyes are rubbed, we know we really only have 20 - 30 minutes before we lose him so we start our night time ritual with a bath. James plays hard at daycare so we think it is important to clean off all the germs each night. We set up the tub with the necessities - Moby spout cover, turtle thermometer, bucket of toys, Aveeno wash and natural sponge and the ever important hoodie towel. His current favs - his elephant towel with his name on the back (thank you Aunt Marissa!) and his froggie towel.
So James and Ed (who is in a bathing suit) hop in the tub and begin Operation: Clean the Bubby. We clean the belly and the toes and the hands and the tooshie. The face and neck are next with a separate washcloth and then it's time for the hair. This kid has a lot of hair these days and it typically has lots of oatmeal in it so Ed goes to town. James is not a big fan of this part, but he deals.
In between all of this, he splashes. And splashes and splashes and splashes!! Ed taught him how to splash and now he LOVES to splash from the moment he gets in the tub to the moment we take him out. When Ed stops the splashing to wash his face or hair, he actually gets upsets and starts crying. Such a diva!
Once the bath is over, Mommy takes over. We go into the nursery where we have his favorite tunes playing (Jewel, Lisa Loeb and Jack Johnson are current favs on the playlist) and the lighting is dimmed. We dry off, diaper up and get a rub down with some lotion. After dressing in his footie jammies and combing the hair into a proper quaff, it is time to head to the glider for the last bottle of the night, a story from one of his many books and a good night kiss from Mom.
By 8 pm this kid is in his crib, zipped in his sleep sack and ready for bed. I don't want to jinx anything by typing this out loud, but he typically falls asleep within minutes without any fussing. I think he is so stimulated at daycare that he is totally beat and ready for bed. And again, I hope I don't jinx us by typing this, but we are getting between 9 and 11 straight hours of sleep out of him. A big change from the 2 to 3 hours for those first few months. :)
So there you have it. We anticipate that bath time will soon change again once he learns how to sit up on his own, but until then, bath time serves not only as a nightly ritual, but as bonding time for all of us.
