Day 66

I gave all the kids baths today. I don't to it very often. This is multi-causal. For one, we have discovered that they have very sensitive skin, and frequent bathing leads to rashes on tender parts of their skin, like behind the knees, inside elbows and behind ears. Then there's the other reason:  Now the bath in general is fine, they love playing in the water, with the bubbles, and all that good stuff. The stressful part is when it is time to actually clean them off. The hair is the really hard part. It's pouring water over their heads that is really hard for them. A little water running down their faces and they panic. I remember feeling the same way as a kid, and now I know what it must have been like for my parents (sorry Dad). It is very difficult to clean a child when they scream and fling themselves around at the slightest trickle on the forehead.  No amount of reassurance seems to help. Fortunately Cirdan and Thea have reached a wonderful age, when they can lean back and lie into the bath water and rinse their hair themselves. Jaden is ok, he can usually be persuaded to get through it with only a little screaming. Zoe is too young for me to be able to explain that if she will only look up and keep looking up, that I can pour the water down the back of her head, and it won't get in her eyes. Instead I just have to cause trauma for a few seconds every time I give her a bath, while I rinse the soap out of her hair.
It is probably unnecessary to mention that I don't like having to do all this in the first place. Tonight was no exception. Cirdan was the one that was the biggest challenge tonight. He and I were not understanding one another. He got his hair wet by himself, then he put the soap in on his own as well, so far it's going great! He did an ok job of washing all his hair, but I had to assist in getting the soap onto the sides of his head. Then when it was time to rinse, Cirdan jumped right in, starting with the sides, and then when I tried to tell him he had to rise the rest too, our communication broke down. I don't know what he though I was asking him to do, but I thought he was telling me that he couldn't rinse the rest by himself. I then decided to go back to me rinsing his hair, because he was not having much success with his own method. But he screamed and cried at the little trickle that fell down his face, when he lowered his head. Anyway, I had to get him calm, and for once I feel good about how I did with that task. I stopped what I was doing and listened attentively, and dare I say patiently, while he explained that he really wanted to skip this part of the deal, and just not rinse his hair. We talked for a bit longer on the subject, and I came to see that he had wanted to rinse his hair himself all along. So I let him go back the the first plan, and for the most part his hairs is clean and soap free. Really it's clean and mostly soap free, but I'll take it :)
I pampered myself a bit today. They were having a bag sale at my local thrift shop. $5/bag. So I got 2 bags loaded with clothes and shoes. 2 pairs of boots, 3 pairs of pants, several shirts and sweaters later, I have a few great outfits, for only pennies each! Yay! I had bought a little makeup a couple days ago, and between the new outfits and the makeup, I was feeling comfortable and beautiful. I took time to take care of myself, and felt much better for it. Thanks to feeling good about myself, I was able to take much better care of the kids. I enjoyed that.