Bath Time is Finally Fun Time

     Imaan has finally conquered her fear of the big bathtub. It was partly my fault she was afraid of it in the first place. You know, when babies are tiny, they are relatively easy to bathe, they just lie there and kicking their legs and flailing their arms a bit while you do the washing and shampooing. I remember thinking it was going to be so much fun to bathe her when she got a little bigger. I had the image in my head of the happy baby laughing and splashing up a storm, playing with floating rubber duckies. Boy, was I wrong.

     As soon as Imaan learned to stand up on her own, that's all she did in the bathtub. She refused to sit down. I tried gently pushing her back down but she rose right up again. She was big enough to go into the big tub at this point, but then I was afraid because the tub at my old house was that hard porcelain type. I was worried that if she got away from me or fell she would crack her head open. So it was well past her first birthday and Imaan was still having her baths in an infant tub, until my sister decided to give her a bath one night when she kept Imaan overnight for me so Shahid and I could have a rare night out. She was really surprised by Imaan's reaction!

     Apparently as soon as Amy tried to put Imaan in the tub she started crying. Amy tried to show her that the bath was fun, giving her the cool tub toys to play with, but Imaan would have none of it. I probably would have given up at this point, but Amy decided that Imaan needed to get used to this experience so she stuck her in the tub. According to Amy, Imaan was screeching like a drowning cat the whole time. Now, Imaan is a tiny girl, but she is very strong and grabbing onto Amy's shirt, she managed to pull herself up and even throw one leg over the side of the tub in a desperate attempt to escape. Hearing this story later I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Amy assured me that if I just did this everyday Imaan would eventually get used to it. Water torture for babies, I remember thinking and went back to my old method of bathing her. It was the pool that Amy bought for her kids that eventually solved Imaan's phobia about the bath.

     You see, Imaan loves her cousins, Tristan who is seven and Aidan who is six. She wants to do everything they do and when she saw them in the pool she was dying to go in too. She loved the pool, which surprised me, considering her reaction to an ordinary bathtub. Later that night I decided to try the tub in our new apartment, it is made of plastic, so I didn't feel so nervous about her getting hurt. Would you believe she went right in without any trepidation at all? It's funny because now everyday she asks for a bath, delighting in throwing all her toys in the water and splashing Mommy. She is so impatient to get in that I have to shut the bathroom door to let the tub fill because she will keep trying to climb in! I also found out it's a good way to distract her from throwing a tantrum. Yesterday she woke up very grouchy from her nap and asked to go outside. Since I hadn't changed her into a fresh diaper or given her anything to eat yet I told her "Later honey". She shrieked, threw down the ball she was holding and proceeded to screaming and crying. I ignored her for a minute or two and then I said "Want a bath". Instantly she stopped and smiled through her tears.
"Okay".