Kate is turning into a full-blown water baby.

When she was a newborn I had a very carefully selected, large, one-piece, rated-best baby bathtub. She hated it the moment I put her down on it. Hysterical screaming. I attempted it about twice and then resorted to just washing her down with a cloth and washing her head by holding her over the sink. Then someone online suggested bathing with her. That sounded a little crazy, but I tried it. Wow, what a difference! I used my legs as an incline to rest her on, I could wash her, move her around, and it was fun! I didn’t do it frequently, but she didn’t really need many baths (she was never a spitter). While bathing with me she learned to kick her feet in the water. She learned to sit up and splash. She discovered the drain and played with her tubby toys. She learned to float.

Because I was in there with her I was able to fill it up higher than I would otherwise have, let her float and kick and swim. We also have a detachable shower head so we use that to hose her down. I was always careful about not getting water in her eyes at all – I wanted to keep the experience as positive as possible – but Den discovered that she doesn’t really mind it. With water running down her face she looks up and smiles. (Unless she inhales some. Different reaction, then.) I soap her up, rinse her off, and then let her play.

Well it all worked, apparently, because she gets so excited at bath time now. She stands up at the tub looking in and squeals, reaching forward to try to touch the faucet. If I’m holding her in my arms when I wash my hands she’s diving forward to touch the water. At work last week she found the cats’ water fountain and had a blast splashing in it beside me. (She was soaked, the floor was soaked, and the cats were all like WTF?!)

The bath was usually a mid-day event for us. After a nap, mid-afternoon when she was awake and I wanted to get clean. It wasn’t at all a part of our evening routine until…. solids. Oh boy, dinner. Sticky hands, sticky face, stained shirt… okay kid, you’re going in the bath. So now it’s an evening occasion every day, soon as she’s done eating dinner. And she knows it. Tonight when she was done eating I wiped her off, wiped down and removed the highchair tray, then went to turn on the bath water while she was still contained in the chair. As soon as I turned on the water I heard shrieks of joy from the living room and I returned to find her waving her arms about in excitement.

I can’t wait until summer. We’re going to have to get a little kiddie pool!