Chronicles of a Two Year Old Who Won't Take a Bath

 Day One:
My sweet little girl runs to the tub and sings her bath time song, "Bath Time, Bath Time".  She gets to the edge of the tub, smiles big at me and as soon as I turn the water on she tears up and runs away.  I think she is playing a game with me so I follow her to my room, strip her down and try to get her in the tub with Z.  At this point she starts screaming and crying, Z is now crying and her slippery little body is clawing at me to get her out of the tub.  Afraid that one of us will be seriously hurt, I pull her out and try to calm her down.  She then cowers in the corner of the bathroom, pees all over the floor and then slips in her pee and is covered in urine.  I now HAVE to bathe her....I remove the crying Z from the tub and wrestle with my two year old as I try to bathe her as quickly as I can (singing softly the whole time).  I take her trembling body out of the tub and look down at myself....I was soaked from head to toe and my back ached.


Day Two:
Scott confesses that he had turned on the shower for fun the last time they were in the tub and perhaps that is why she was afraid.  I research bath phobias on the internet and most advise to not force the issue but rather come up with creative solutions.

Day Four: 
I create a bath time carnival complete with bubbles, all the bath toys and her baby doll which she has never brought into the tub.  More tears, screaming and Scott and I end up washing her hair in the sink and sponge bathing the rest of her.

Day Five: 
I buy a new bath visor from Amazon and pray that it will be the solution to our bath time problems.

Day Six:
I invite Lil'C to bathe her doll while I bathe Z.  She comes in for a bit and then runs away

Day Seven:
Brainstorm possible bath time solutions with my friend Claire...kitchen sink?  big blue bucket in the kitchen?  me bathe with her??

Day Eight:
After seeing how awesome the new bath visor worked on Z, she still refused to bathe.  She then refused to bathe with mommy so we resorted to another sponge bath and hair wash in the sink :(  Next time we will try for the blue bucket.

Anyone have any suggestions???  Z was afraid of the bath about about 10 months and a new toy did the trick.  Not so sure that will work in this case.  Z was also not as afraid as Lil'C is.  Any advice would be most welcome!!

Terrible Twos, The Prequel to the Teen Years

I have to imagine that the mother of a two year old girl and the mother of a 16 year old girl have more in common than they might think.  In both cases there is usually a great battle brewing.   Yes the subject of the battles are very different...the two year old is crying over not being allowed ice cream at 9am or having to nap instead of play and the 16 year old is crying because you won't let her go to the unchaperoned party or on a trip to Cozumel with her sleezy Biology Teacher...but never the less the energy of these battles is much the same.

Check me out....yes I appeared to be the perfect "geeky" teen but inside was a volcano ready to explode!

 I often have moments with Lil' C where I get visions of the future and what is in store and it scares me! I was not an easy teenager to raise, quite moody in fact, and went through a terrible blue period my senior year of high school.  I had a temper (wonder where Lil' C gets it from) and though I was a good girl (the girlfriend of a Mormon has to be good), I was a bit of a B*#*H when it came to my mom (sorry mom!). 

Mama and Me :)

So here I am, now raising a daughter (karma coming back to bite me ;)), and who knows what is in store.  She is the sweetest, most loving, feisty, independent, funny, energetic little person I know.  She is like me in so many ways and foreign to me in so many others.  I never know what mood or pair of shoes she will be wearing next (the girl LOVES shoes).  She loves to be nude, is so focused, is as stubborn as a mule, loves to snuggle her George, is so considerate of her brother, has the loudest screech (I should rent her out to sound effect studios) and is so stinkin cute!

The other night I was talking about Lil'C in the teen years with S and told him that we are going to have to make sure that she gets herself a good Mormon boyfriend to help her fly straight.  It helped me stay "pure" and because of him I stayed away from booze until college.  S told me that it was a great plan but that reverse psychology might work better with Lil' C.  So the plan is to forbid her from dating Mormon's and then she will run right into their waiting arms (although at the dances I went to you had to be 6 inches apart). A mother can dream......

If You Give Lil' C a Party...

Lil' C is now two and her birthday party Saturday was so much fun!  We created the party around her favorite books from Laura Numeroff (author of If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Pig a Pancake etc.) and she LOVED it.

I wanted to do a brunch and so we dined on all of the 5 main character's favorite foods.  There were moose's muffins, mouse's chocolate chip cookies, pig's pancakes, cat's cupcakes and dog's donuts.  We also mixed in some other foods (quiche, lasagna and veggies and dip) to curb the sweetness :)

 The Invitation went along with the style of the books and had pictures of Lil' C for each phrase.  This is how it read: 

If you give Lil' C a party,
she is going to want a cupcake to go with it.
When she sees all the cupcakes you make, she will want to text all of her family and friends.

With family and friends coming, she will want to decorate.
Once she gets out the balloons and decorations,
she will want to listen to music as she decorates.
hearing the music will remind her of dancing,
dancing will make her thirsty and she will want some milk.
the milk will remind her of cupcakes,
and she will probably ask you for one.and chances are if she asks for a cupcake, 

she will want a party to go with it!!

The party was mostly adults (only 6 kids including my own) and so I created activities for both adults and children.  The adults had a TV Trivia game, mimosas and I searched for funny pictures of the guests for a "Looking Fabulous Contest" (inspired by Pig taking fun pictures in If you Give a Pig a Pancake).  Winners of the games received scratch tickets :)

Here is one of the 6 winners from the "Looking Fabulous Contest".  S tied in the Male Category :) 

For the kids entertainment I had a Sweet Treat Scavenger Hunt where they searched for the character's missing treats.  I also set up stations with activities from each of the books.  We had Moose's Puppets, Cat's Dinosaurs, Dog and Pig's Dance Party and Mouse's Drawing.

It was such a fun party to plan and Lil C had a fabulous time.  She wasn't really into opening gifts but enjoyed the time with family and friends!  I was exhausted by the end (party started at 11am and our last guest left after midnight) but it was all worth it to celebrate two amazing years with my beautiful little girl :)

Her Birthday Breakfast with Z, Mom and Dad

Her Doll House from Neene and Chi Chi (her auntie's got her some people and some furniture ;))

Cake!!!

Her Bear Picture

After Party Fun with Grandpa J

Argh!!!

Listening to her Gift from Grandpa and Mimi (She has listened to it non-stop since she got it!)

My Baby is TWO today!!

We are very busy getting ready to celebrate Lil' C's 2nd birthday so I will be brief.  Next week I will share all the details of her party :)

I cannot believe that the little sassy light of my life is now two, it blows my mind.  I can't remember life without her yet it seems like just yesterday she was this small.  I love you baby girl, thanks for making me laugh, for giving me cuddles and for reminding me to appreciate life.  Your enthusiasm is contagious!  You truly light up every room you enter and your personality (and temper) make  you unforgettable.

I love you more than words and wish you the very happiest birthday!!!