A successful bath!!!

I don't think I've blogged about our latest toddler struggle, but I'm happy to say that we have FINALLY overcome it! Lucas has been absolutely terrified to bathe for the last two months or so and it really started taking a toll on Levi and I. This wasn't one of those stubborn toddler moments, but a terrified fear of the tub. I have absolutely no idea how this came about and have been trying for some time to ease him back into one of his previously favorite past times, but it turned out to be much harder than I even anticipated.

Bathing quickly became a family struggle and one that I couldn't attempt on my own. Many nights Levi and I had to team up and force a quick bath on our child because no matter how fun and exciting we tried to make it, he would scream and shake in horror. I know something must have happened to cause this, but I cannot pin point what it was. He would shake uncontrollably and scream as if he were literally being murdered. I was without energy for weeks and couldn't even attempt this poor feat on my own. Needless to say, my child went without a bath for days on end. I would break down in tears and couldn't handle seeing him this way, so I gave up more often than not.

Fast forward a bit and Grandma came to the rescue! I'd been discussing this over with my mom and no matter what I would do, nothing seemed to work. I went out to buy some fun bath items, but nothing seemed to help. (And not to mention the selection was very limited here for some reason). My mom went to target and got nearly every fun bath item she could find and packaged Lucas up a box! He loves receiving packages and was very excited when this one arrived. We pulled everything out and I kept explaining that it was all for his fun bath that we were going to take tonight. He took very fondly to the boat, and spend nearly the entire day playing with it. We set all of the other items in a pile on the kitchen table and I told him we would use them that evening.

After Lucas woke from nap I turned on some cartoons to occupy him while I finished up a quick assignment. The universe must have been working with me this day because it just so happened that Yo Gabba Gabba's episode on bathing had just started! The entire episode was about germs and the importance of washing your hands and bathing. There was also a big segment on washing your hair with special soap called "shampoo". I watched it with him and we talked about everything that was happening, and I pointed out how much fun everyone was having in their baths. After it was over he told me that he needed to wash his hair wish shampoo because it was dirty! Ahh, thank heaven my child is so attentive and has such a great level of comprehension :)

That evening after we had eaten dinner I mentioned to Lucas that we need to get ready for our bath. As expected, he shouted back that he didn't want to, but then without me noticing he made his way into the kitchen. Levi yelled for me to hurry up and follow him NOW because he just grabbed all his bath stuff and went into the bathroom. SERIOUSLY?! Was this really happening?!

We both ran behind him and quickly closed the bathroom door behind us. He started to panic for a bit when he realized he was trapped in there, but we continued on. I started the water, added bubbles, and surprisingly was able to persuade him in (with his boat of course!) I then asked him what color he wanted to turn the water. My mom sent these wonderful tablets that you simply drop in, and voila! You have color! He chose green, so we dropped in one blue tablet and one yellow one. Almost like magic the water started to change and his entire face lit up! It took a while to convince him to actually sit on his bottom, but it happened nonetheless.


Next we pulled out the bath crayons! He immediately went to work drawing a picture on the wall.

The bubbles were of course a hit and he continued to blow on them!

Amongst the many awesome bath supplies was a red crab wash cloth puppet. He wore that silly thing almost the entire time and only gave it up to let me wash him!

Once he was clean and we had played for quite some time, I tried to persuade him out. I never would have guessed it...but he refused! He said he wanted to stay! So, we let him play for quite a while and then I drained the water out. Even once the last of the water was gone, he still didn't want to get out :)

We wrapped him in his pirate robe and headed out to the living room for a lotion rub down and pj's.


Bath time was finally a success thanks to grandma! There are still many items from the package that we haven't touched, so hopefully we can keep this excitement going for quite some time!

And yes, before anyone comments...I know he needs a haircut! He and Levi both have this super scruffy look going on together and I love how much it makes them look alike! What can I say? I'm a sucker for these boys! :)