Bobby used to love to take baths....actually, he loved bubble baths. I always had to put a beach towel out on the bathroom floor to aide in the cleanup process after he got out of his bath that typically lasted around 30 minutes. I found it just so much easier to wipe the floor, the wall by the tub and the actual tub with a beach towel so that we could have a completely dry bath towel to dry Bobby.
However, starting sometime last spring, he stopped using baths as a play place. I have just gotten used to Bobby getting into the bathtub, helping me wash his hair and his body and then getting right out and the whole process lasting less than 5 minutes. Many times this summer I have asked him, "Don't you want to stay and play in the water?" I just assumed that he was getting enough sensory needs taken care of with swimming even though he hasn't been swimming much this summer because of all of the rain.
On the way up the stairs to take a bath, I knew that this was going to be a long bubble bath where he played and got water all over the bathroom....and I knew exactly why!!! Bobby has used Baby Aveeno shampoo/body wash almost exclusively his whole life. Every so often I would try a new body wash but it would immediately break his skin out and I would go back to his Baby Aveeno because he didn't have any reaction to this wash. Last spring I tried another new one, this time a much cheaper product, Suave sensitive for kids that doesn't contain any dyes. Yay, it didn't break him out and it is only around $2 a bottle!!!
The long baths stopped around the time he started playing outside longer in the evening, so I just assumed that he would play in the bathtub when he wanted and wasn't concerned about it at all. In fact these long bath time play session are a double edged sword...they are nice as part of his bed time routine and calming, but I have to stay in sight of the bathroom for half an hour and have a mess to clean.
For some reason, when I went to the grocery store yesterday, I purchased Baby Aveeno instead of Suave. I sat it on the kitchen window ledge so that I could take it with me upstairs later on in the day. Bobby was excited to see his favorite soap back into his life and couldn't wait to go take a bath.
When we got to the bathroom he was literally jumping for joy while waiting for me to get the bath water running. He immediately got into the bubble bath, helped me wash his hair and body, and then played happily for 30 minutes of water flying fun!!! Yes, I had to get out a beach towel, protect the floor from all of the water and went back to my normal routine of putting things away in his bedroom which is directly across the hall from his bathroom.
When he let the water out, his signal that he is all done, I went in and helped him dry off and put on his pj's and then I wiped up the floor, the front of the tub and the wall by the bathtub. Bobby then said, "Jeopardy." Ok Buddy, but you have to wait about 5 more minutes until it comes on. As I was combing his hair, I have to admit that I was happy too....he smelled like my baby boy again. Funny how scents can take us back to a memory.
When he is in high school and all of the other boys want to smell like Axe body products, my sweet boy will still want to smell like his Baby Aveeno.
We did have another success yesterday evening. Bobby ate a piece of Mommy's homemade banana bread with 4 real bananas smashed up inside the loaf. Surely this counts as a fruit doesn't it??!!! I see banana bread as the new birthday cake in this family!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment