Bathtime with Peanut: The long version

Every mother knows, you have to think strategically about how and when you complete the tasks you have on your daily list.  There are tasks you can do with the kids around, and those you have to do when they are not. Me, I like to maximize the tasks I can do when they are around so that when they're not, I can do what I want to do.  I fold the laundry while playing lego with Boodge and watching the baby.  I cook with Boodge while the baby sleeps.  I garden with the kids outside, I haul them along to the grocery store.  Some things need specific conditions though, like when I made jam last year.  There were just too many pots of boiling liquids around for me to feel safe unless Boodge was asleep.

Bathtime with Peanut, I learned the hard way, also had to be done when Boodge was sleeping.  I tried getting him "involved" in giving her a bath in the kitchen sink.  The whole time the bath was happening I was frantically trying to hold up a floppy, slippery baby while keeping him from putting the dirty dishes from the other sink into her side.  It ended with water covering most of the counter, and all of us had to be re-dressed afterwards.  Mom's, learn from my mistake.  At least clean out both sinks first.

Next I tried to convince him it would be fun to help me give her a bath in the big tub.  This was around the time that he was doing a lot of negative attention seeking, and nothing to do with his sister seemed fun to him.  So when I explained to him that I had to stay with her and be very careful with her, well, he saw that as a perfect opportunity.  He ran down the hall and started getting up to various forms of no good. I could hear crashing, jumping.  Sometimes he was good enough to come in and tell me what he was up to; "There's juice on the carpet."  Peanut's bath was not very long, hardly worth all that water.

So over the last few weeks, we've devised a new ritual.   Once or twice a week, when Boodge happens to be asleep but Peanut is not, I have my shower while she plays on the bathroom floor.  I put the plug in so I can collect the water and when I am done washing myself, I pull her in with me.   It's become one of my most precious times with her.  Just her and I, naked as the day she was born, warm in the water together.  I lay her on my chest and she splashes by my ear, grinning at me as she discovers this new element.  I stand her up and she examines the drips slipping down the bathroom wall with serious amazement.  She zones out and sucks the facecloth while I pour water on her back from an empty yogurt container.  Once she just put her head on my chest and snuggled in, and I had to push my chest out of the water to keep her above.  We stayed that way for several minutes.  My heart swelled open like a flower.

I love my little Peanut so much.  But it is so hard to get those moments with her that I took for granted with Boodge.  The one on one, quiet, uninterrupted just being together.  When we are in the tub I feel like it's my time to let go into adoring her. There is nothing to be done in the house (it's out there anyway, on the other side of the door).  There is no Boodge vying for my attention, or looking sad because I am cooing at his sister for too long.  Just me and my girl, having some spa time.

And, the practical side of me has to add--two tasks completed; my shower and her bath.  But it's not a task--it's exactly what I want to be doing, and then some.  It's pure delight.  Bathtime with Peanut--I finally got it right.