Bathtime

I just googled ‘When is a toddler too old to have a bath with his Mommy’.  For a fleeting moment I thought maybe we were past the threshold and I was going to be judged.

Anyhow, I didn’t get a consensus so I’m moving on.  Mason is only 3..I think we have at least another year before he’s fully aware of all the body parts.

I just went through the second longest ever time away from Mason.  He was on a 2 week road trip through the US with his Dad and his Dad’s girlfriend.  This time was a bit easier but I did sink into a mini depression due to a very quiet lonely house.  Those feelings disappeared as if never to have resided in my mind the minute Mason ran to me when I picked him up after 13 days.  Life resumes to normal.

I haven’t had a bath with Mason in quite a while, not for lack of wanting one but just that baths to me are a time of peace, a good book and maybe a nice hot cuppa.  Those three things are not synomous with a toddler in tub.  Not to mention that those things wouldn’t fit in the bathtub as Mason dumped every plastic toy he owned into the bath while it was filling up with water.

I pushed all the toys to the front and sunk into the water.  Usually for Mason's bath I ensure the water is just a bit warmer than lukewarm, not wanting to irate his sensitive, excema flaring skin.  It was quite warm for him, perfect for me.  After I made him test it with his feet, he hopped in and the tub toys swirled around me.  He launched into a child like trance as he pretended he had a ‘fire jet’ and that he was a firefighter and made all kinds of roaring, beeping noises.

I would be a rebel and bring in a book with me, to keep my mind off the quickly cooling water.  The book is about being a Mother and many of the stories make me cry.  I lift the book above my head like a tent and watch my son.  I feel something heavy on my body, it’s a rather large Fisher Price boat which has moored itself onto my belly.  It gives me a bit of a giggle.  The boat has hit dry land and can’t launch.  The belly is not flat so it stays.

Mason’s previous accommodations.  I wonder how he got from ‘there’ to ‘there’ (in front of me).  I admire his beautiful little face, eyelashes that Maybelline would die for on a model, pink skin (spotted with excema on his shoulders), bright eyes and a non stop little mouth which is now making very loud beeping noises.

“I beeping!”.

“I know, I can hear you!”. 

He giggles and continues on his mission to save the world.  The plastic toys bump up against me.  I pick one up and to my dismay it has a slight film on it.  Yuck.  Someone needs to disinfect those things.  Oh right, that’s me.  I pretend I didn’t feel the slime.

I then feel something on my left breast.  A lime green plastic shovel.  Well hello there.  Clearly this child does not need this many toys, he hasn’t even played with the one that end up on me.

I put the book above my head again to watch my Son.  We start to sing the Spiderman song, even though I don’t know all the words.

Mason announces that he has to pee and stares at me.  I exclaim,“Well you CANNOT pee in here!”.  I lift him out of the tub and watch what a big boy he’s turned into.  He grabs his porta seat and places it on the toilet.  He struggles with how he’s going to get up to the toilet so I verbally guide him through getting the other porta potty (now a stool) and move it over so he can get up on the toilet seat.  I don’t even think he had to go.  And now he wants me to lift him back into the tub.  We are both going to need a shower after this bath!

He continues to play with his toys and I alternate reading the book and staring.  I have to admit, he is pretty cute.  So full of life and imagination.  I wish I could bottle up his ages.

I announce I am ready to get out after I accidentally dipped my library book in the water (oops) and the bath water is cold.  The best part of the whole bath time routine is afterwards when I wrap him up in a giant pink fluffy robe and we cuddle on the couch while he watches cartoons.

I know we will hit the age where I no longer can bathe with him and watch him in his little toddler world and I need to savour every moment now.  Childhood is so precious, isn’t it?

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