It was "bath day" yesterday - which seems to happen only about once a week around here. That sounds really bad. Abram does get baths more often than that, usually a quick one at night right before bed. But if he's going to have a longer, more fun bath, that has to happen during the day. I've discovered that it is actually better to do their baths consecutively. Hers usually kinda knocks her out and then she is sleeping while Abram gets his. So I'll show you my tactics for getting this precarious scenario to work for us:
1. Trap toddler in his room using baby's pack n play.
This enables us to see each other (read: me see him, as he is the one that can't be trusted behind closed doors).
2. Move baby's changing table pad to bathroom and run bath.
This was only one small moment of unhappiness. Her changing table pad (which is a wipable one from Ikea with a cover) is one of the only places that she is happy almost all of the time.
3. Use folded and rolled up towels to create a baby palette in the shallow tub water.
This is, by far, the best way that I've found to bathe a newborn. She is able to lay in a decent amount of water (I usually fill it up a bit more than this, actually) and I don't have to support her with one hand the whole time.
She is much more calm and comfortable this way than she was when we would do the whale baby tub we have. I think that it's because she is laying on a nice, warm, kooshy towel instead of hard plastic. That's my theory. I know I'd like baths more if the tub was towel lined. Maybe that's just me... and Selah.
5. Take baby out of bath. Snuggle.
My favorite part.
6. While dressing baby, assure toddler that it is almost his turn and affirm him for being so patient (even though he has whined and yelled "bath!" over and over the whole time).
There are toys in his room to distract him, but he has mostly been watching the bath process with envy.
7. Admire clean, fluffy baby hair.
Most of the time she's pretty tired after this and I am able to swaddle her, drag her pack n play back into our room, and have her to sleep within minutes. That was not the case during this particular photo shoot and I ended up needing to nurse her on the floor of the bathroom while trying to manage the toddler bath at the same time.
8. Fill tub up more and insert very excited toddler.
I bought him bath markers, but he really just likes to hold them in his hand and drop them into the tub. But it's helping him learn his colors, so that's good.
9. Take unwilling toddler out of drained tub by scaring him with faucet turned on full force.
10. Dry and dress.
So that's how I've been able to do it a few times. We will see if it continues to work. It would be great if I could get a bath in there somewhere. I'd like bubbles in mine, too. And a towel lined tub. I could do without the bath markers. Despite the fact that they don't stay on the tub or walls, they do stain the washcloth used to clean said areas. But seeing as I can barely get a shower every other day, I'm not sure any kind of bath is in my near future.
We also cleaned the front room of our house yesterday. We are slowly going through all of the rooms of our house and organizing, getting rid of things, and packing stuff up. We are starting early because it's a pretty slow process. The other day we successfully cleared out the front room/dining room. If you ever think that your kids need more toys to entertain them, consider getting rid of everything instead and letting them run laps in the completely empty room. My child was entertained with this empty room and our baskets of shoes longer than he's been entertained by any single toy ever.
I was vacuuming that room with Selah in the wrap, trying to put her to sleep. It worked really well. I guess my womb must sound like a vacuum, which is funny because I may not have vacuumed once while she was in there. Abram loves vacuums too (more proof of a vacuum sounding womb) and so he was a very happy camper for that hour or so.
I also got some good exercise by hauling the vacuum around the room and squatting down to do the baseboards in such a way that Selah stayed pretty much upright. It was my buns work out for the day.
On a final note, we caught some first smiles this morning! I've gotten a few this past week, but she was giving me quite a few this morning, so I yelled for Quinn to bring the camera and he got there just in time.
... Before she turned back into her stoic little Selah self...
But hopefully there are many more to come!
okay, you have to let me watch the both of them on Tuesday so you can have a bath. baths are important.
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