Bath time

I thought I would take the time to talk about our bath time rituals. After all it takes up a good majority of our time and patience. Bath time at our house is not a fun activity that Ian and I like to partake in. In fact we will both grown if the other suggests that it is time for the infamous water activity. Our oldest son Stephen only likes water if it is on his terms, meaning we can't just tell him to get in the water we have to use every trick and bribe to get him there first. Isaiah on the other hand loves the water so much that Ian and I will not even say the word bath out loud anymore, we have to spell it out for fear of disappointment on Isaiah's part. 

Once the announcement is made about the impending bath, complete chaos breaks out. It's like a whistle blows and everyone goes a wall. Stephen starts negotiating reasons on why he should not have a bath and Isaiah tries frantically to get to the tub. 

High pitched screams of excitement and terror radiate our small home as water is filling the bathtub. This is where it gets really entertaining, Isaiah will try as hard as he can to climb the tub while I'm trying to undress him. Stephen spends his time running around our very tiny bathroom trying to avoid being caught in an attempt to free himself from this horrible experience. Once in the tub, after pleading with Stephen that most of his friends and family would appreciate a bath on his part, the fun really begins.

Now Stephen is your typical almost 4 year old who hates water, screams when you wash his hair cries if you do it for him etc. Isaiah turns into a fish or frog or maybe even a hybrid of the two, because when he is in the water it's like he has no limitations. Isaiah flips, he flops, his head is in the water blowing bubbles, he's doing some kind of water leap frog. All the while Stephen doesn't want to have any part of it all, so he just sits there. So try to imagine for me on one end of the tub we have a 4 year old screaming and crying and on the other we have a 2 year old that can't sit still from all of the excitement. The real reason why Ian and myself  are not true fans of bath time is because we end up with the majority of the water on us! It's like going to the zoo and sitting in the front row of a dolphin show and getting soaked every time the dolphin jumps up. My favorite animal is a dolphin and I'm a swim instructor but I don't want to be wet unless I say I want too! Also at our house we don't have a 500,000 gallon tank or whatever size it would take for dolphins to swim in, so we get every drop. 

Needless to say bath time is now an activity we graciously give to Ian's parents to participate in while they are here. And oops we forgot that little disclaimer about while giving our children a bath one might get wet!   

So have a change of cloths. :)