It's Bathtime!!

For the early months of Luke's life, I was of the once a week bathtime option. Slippery little floppy baby? Not my favorite thing in the world. Luke didn't overly mind being dunked in water, but he wasn't necessarily thrilled about it.

When he hit about six months, baths became more fun because he was sitting up and splashing in the water. I still wasn't a very frequent bath-giver. I washed his face, I cleaned his bum, most of the time that was plenty. About eight or nine months, when pulling himself up was a great novelty, baths became a struggle to KEEP HIM SEATED so I wouldn't have to deal with a baby concussion.

But now Luke is not only fully mobile, he's very into feeding himself. And feeding himself what we're eating, which is often stuff with sauce. Last night he had meatballs (he's completely carnivore, still won't eat NOODLES) and he's getting over a cold so he had a saucy, snotty face. Mere tissues do not work on hardened baby snot, and when that stuff hits the outside air, an immediate crust forms. It would be easier to go for the full bath than to just clean his face.

Luke loves his baths, so it's fun to head into the bathroom with him as the tub is filling. He reaches in from the outside to grab his toys and sticks his hands under the running water from the faucet. After a minute or two, when there's two or three inches of water in the tub, he decides he's ready to go, and starts trying to throw his leg over the side of the tub. Which doesn't work too well since his legs are about 14 inches long. So he opts to climb up me and try to vault himself over the side that way. Fully clothed.

At this point there's enough water in the tub that I think he won't freeze, and I start undressing him, which is a horror of all horrors! I mean, just put me IN THE TUB ALREADY!!!

He got a lot of new bath toys for Christmas, and happily bites and pats and tosses things here and there while I wash him up. After about ten minutes, though, he's done, and he stands up, grabs my neck, and tries to vault himself out of the tub wet and nekkid.

Esposo rarely gives the kid a bath, and I'm not quite sure what that's about.

We're up to about three baths a week, I would say, and I can't see the point in getting much higher than that if the child isn't a mess. Especially in the winter...