Mommy Sit Down

I have rediscovered the joy of bathing. Not the kind where I stick Eva in the tub and sit on the toilet watching her play with her toys and pour endless cups of water over her head - no, this is an old trick by now. Now I fill up the big tub and put myself in it along with a hefty helping of soap. Eva stands on the outside ready to fulfil her part of the bargain.

She takes all of her bath toys and dumps them in, sometimes hurling them one by one into my shins. I lay back and she fishes them out. Then she grabs a wash cloth and with a look of extreme concentration wipes my leg or my shoulder or whatever part of me she can reach. She looks determined, her eyebrows wrinkled together, her eyes on the washcloth at all times. Once in a while she barks an order to stick out the other arm or leg so that she can take care of that now.

I wonder if this is what I look like when I try to wash her, trying to wipe down every last square inch of her body. She takes a plastic cup and dumps some water on my stomach - weeeeeeee - it feels really good.

So far both of us are very much enjoying this role reversal. Eva demands every night that mommy sit down and once in a while I give in. I get to lay back in warm soapy water, and my back muscles get to relax a little bit. And then when enough time has lapsed for another tank of hot water to warm up I close the curtain and wash up while Eva plays with her toys and books on the cold and wet bathroom floor - she doesn't seem to notice.

My parents would be horrified at such an excessive amount of parental nudity. My mom has been harping on me to potty train Eva so that nobody gets to look at her private parts - huh? I think that people need to get a grip on the fact that the human body is a collection of useful body parts and that almost 2 is not an age where a child thinks of anything sexually. What a bizarre world we live in...