In My Baby's Eyes

It's the first of July which means two things… (a) it's my dad's birthday — happy 52nd! and (b) it's time for the Blog Exchange. Today's guest is Rose from It's my life… and you can find me over there! Enjoy!

“Ready?” I ask lifting her into the air above the tub. “Here we go!”
It’s finally bath time and she’s itching to play with her tub toys.
“A dophin! A dophin!” She squeals as she sits down with a splash. Within seconds she’s engrossed in her toys, putting water in one, scrubbing another.

All too soon for her liking it’s time for me to pull out the soap and washcloth.
“No mammy! No! After! After!”
“After what sweetie?” I ask.
“After play with toys!” She quips back.
I ignore her pleas and start to lather up her back. After she plays with toys could be a very long while indeed. She ignores my ministrations for a while, but gets all antsy again when she sees me fill the cup with water.
“No mammy! No washa hair!”
“I have to wash your hair baby; it’s all yucky and stinky!”

Every time the water cascades down her head she squirms away, moving her body in ways I couldn’t replicate if I tried. She tries to get away, but her efforts are half-hearted; she knows I’ll get her one way or another, so it’s not really worth the fight. Once I stop wetting her hair and focus on shampooing it she goes back to ignoring me. Secretly I think she enjoys the head massage, but there’s no doubt she hates the part when I have to rinse out the shampoo.

I run the water until it’s the perfect temperature and I grab hold of my cup again. C tenses up and I feel her get ready to duck and cover again.
“Hold still baby; the less you move the faster this goes.”
The water pours down her back taking with it more and more of the shampoo. We’re ok as long as I can focus on the back of her head, but soon it’s time for the front and sides. Nothing I say convinces her to throw her head back, instead she tilts it forward in an effort to get away from the warm water. Each and every time the water runs down her face she looks up at me with the saddest expression possible; her gorgeous blue eyes shiny with unshed tears.
“I know sweetheart. I know it’s no fun to have shampoo and water in your eyes. I wish you would just try to look up when I have to rinse your hair.”
She doesn’t reply and I keep going; there’s a little more shampoo and I have no choice but to get it out, no matter how much water ends up in my baby’s eyes.

This was a guest post written by Rose at It’s My Life… in honor of this month’s blog exchange.

When I’m not busy working, cooking, or running after my toddler, C, I’m usually hiding in the bathroom thinking up my next blog post or trying to read a chapter or two of the book I’m currently wading through. When I do come up with something witty to write about, you can read it here (though I have to apologize, the baby within seems to have swallowed most of the wit these days…) where your usual blogger extraordinaire is blogging today.

Go on over and read her post and don’t forget to check out all the other blog exchange posts this month!