A Small Victory

First of all, let me say THANKS for all of your comments and encouragement with regard to Hannah's bath fears. Since it had been almost a week since her last bath and both T and I were home, tonight was the night to try again...the night to try something. We decided to let her choose one of us to bathe with her (all with very upbeat and excited voices, of course). She chose me, so in I went, and she joined me after a bit of mild protesting. We used a handful of her regular bath toys to play, and I tried to make the water seem fun by talking with her about our times in the pool last summer and "swishing" her around a bit. She enjoyed it nearly the whole time and even started to spontaneously pour water on herself, even requesting me to pour some on her hair when she realized she couldn't quite coordinate the cup. A bit of fear did surface when it came time to rinse the soap out of her hair, but even that we were able to quickly calm without any tears or screaming. It was delightful, and while I don't really want baths to be that big of a deal forever and always, I'll gladly take it for now.

And we followed up bath time with some family bonding over books and puzzles. Here she is, showing off her mad puzzle skills for her tired, hard-working daddy.