This is my attempt at distracting myself. From the obvious weight of this week. I'm sure it will get the best of me and come spilling out in a pile of barely coherent emotion by the end of the week. (That was your fair warning.) But for now, I'm giving myself a break. Join me, won't you?
I can't help but laugh when I catch myself asking, "You wanna take a bath?!" in the same tone of voice some Moms might use to ask "You wanna 'nother cookie?!"
We'll be outside playing in the cul-de-sac and it will inevitably creep closer and closer to bedtime. Usually, we get whined at when we suggest it might be time to park the bike and/or lawn mower and head inside. But if I happen to mention that we played hard and dirty enough to warrant a BATH – he practically runs to the door. Crazy kid.
Make no mistake, there's not much actual bathing going on during any one of these so-called baths. There's water. In a tub. But that's kinda where it ends. He's way too busy testing the absolute limits of the "all water stays in the bathtub" rule and cannot be bothered with soap and other nonsense. He still takes a shower in the mornings before school to wash off any traces of "boy" leftover from the day before. Not to worry, he gets a healthy new dose each day.
Perhaps slightly disturbing is his favorite bath time game – Capsize. I have yet to get it on video, but it looks a little like this:
He fills his little boat with water – either straight from the faucet or by just holding the boat under for a few seconds. It gets ugly when he puts his little toy people in there first. He fills the bottom of the boat with the boat captain, a handful of fish, a wind-up swimming monkey, and a bus driver that somehow made his way from the toy box in the living room — then slams the lid and subjects them to their fate. Sometimes he changes his mind at the last minute and tears the lid off the boat so they all come spilling out into the water, swimming for their lives.
(For the record, it's harder than it looks to edit all baby hineys out of bath time video clips. But I know he'll thank me for it later.)
So far so good with the transition from bath to bed. All he needs is a suggestion of "ready to get out?" and he starts piling the toys back where they go. He gathers up all the fishies and the water toys as he waves "bye bye voddur" at the drain. Then it's off to bed.
And when you need a good distraction, nothing's better than this. Love this boy.
