The Many Bubbles of Bath Time

One of my reasons for maintaining this blog is to keep a record of those little day-to-day things that are so important or adorable now but which will quickly fade from memory as new important and/or adorable things occur.

And not just because Joe and I will forget them, but because we will forget to share them with the kids.

A couple of years ago, I was in the back seat of my parents' car driving back from something in the East Bay and my dad pointed up at the towers of the Bay Bridge and told me that my brother and I used to call it "the 'X' bridge", presumably because the towers each have three big, steel X's holding the sides together.  This is something I would not remember on my own.

In that spirit, I bring you bath time at Chez Salvateenie.

At this point, the kids take a bath every other day.  The three of them bathe together.  It is invariably a battle to get them disrobed and lowered into the bubbles (there are always bubbles), but once there they usually calm down.

For what seemed like an eternity, they would request to hear their "Elmo's Greatest Hits" CD during bath time, with occasional requests to switch to the "bayball game!" (Luckily, anything sports radio-y is "baseball" to them at this point.)  Of course, this only seemed like an eternity until they changed their request to "LazyTown Radio!" and we got to listen to the greatest hits of their favorite show every bath time (and when they feel like dancing in the living room, and when they go on car trips, and, probably, in their sleep as they seem to know all the words and sing along constantly).

Bath time contains many activities, very few of them are related to actual cleansing.

Among these activities, bubbles are a favorite.  But it is important to specify which kinds of bubbles you are talking about.  There are "bubbles", which are the kind made by the bubble bath and which are used to paint on the walls in "bubble painting" and "imitation bubble facial hair" - "Mommy! Look my bubble beard!"  These are also used in a fast-paced game of bubble tossing, often culminating in giggles and the phrase, "Mommy! You got bubbles you nose!"

After some serious "bubbles" time, when the bubbles have dissipated, Max or Daniel will ask to "play bubbles".  The uninitiated might be confused - "Haven't you been playing with bubbles for the past, say, fifteen minutes?" you might ask.  Ah, but that's where you'd be wrong.  For those first fifteen minutes, they were playing WITH "bubbles" - now, it's time to "play bubbles", which means Mommy has to blow bubbles AT them using a bubble wand, and has to be good enough to fulfill requests for "big bubbles" or "fast bubbles" or "more bubbles to me!"  Who knew I would become such a connoisseur of bubble formulas (in case you're wondering, the secret seems to be the cheaper the bubbles, the better they work).  I've really loved watching this time.  Caroline likes to watch the bubbles and to try blowing bubbles herself and recently she's taken to catching them on her own wand and devouring them like ice cream on a spoon.  Daniel and Max like to catch the bubbles - especially "big bubbles" - and stretch them in all sorts of fun surface tension experiments.

Because the big bubbles are always in demand, I started directing them at individual kids, telling them, "OK, this one's for Caroline ... OK, now Daniel's turn ... OK, now Max ..."  Max seemed to really internalize this as many times in and out of the bath when one of the other kids was doing something he wanted to try, he would chant, "Now Max? Max! Max! Max turn!" rather than "my" turn.  I even had to warn some baby wranglers that if he started chanting his own name it meant he wanted to be next.

Once we've gotten through "bubbles" and "play bubbles", we're about forty-five minutes into bath time (though, sadly, still not done with LazyTown radio).  The bubbles are gone, the water is some shade of filth, and it is time to start thinking about washing the children.  I use an Elmo or Cookie Monster shaped mesh bath puff and deposit some soap on it for our final installment, "squishy bubbles".  "Squishy bubbles" developed after a few baths when the kids refused to submit to being scrubbed down.  So I made it a game - "Time for 'squishy bubbles'!  Who wants to squish the bubbles?"  Surprisingly, the same kids who don't want to be washed are ecstatic to squish the puff and make the bubbles appear.  The next step is to ask who needs squishy bubbles on their toes - their shoulders? their back?  At this point, the kids generally start chiming in with body parts that need squishy bubbling and before they know it, they're clean!

And yet I still haven't figured out a way to keep them from screeching when I rinse their hair.

Is there a bubble for that?

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And now for the pictorial portion of this entry.  After reading this, Boppy stopped by the other day for a visit and stayed through bath time.  Thanks to his quick shutter finger, we have these illustrations of the many bubbles of bath time.

Daniel stretching a bubble

Max catching bubbles

And Caroline eating bubbles, of course.

Caroline has squishy bubbles in her hair!

And after bath time, everyone is rewarded with a little bit of "phone" time - Max favors playing with Mommy's actual iPhone, while Daniel opts for Boppy's old one (which he inexplicably calls "pink phone") and Caroline gets the "big phone".