Baths

Ok, so I will openly admit that I usually only bathe my kids once a week. That may shock some of you, but I feel like we're so busy that I just don't have the time. By the time my girls get off the bus at 4, do homework, eat dinner, then either play or have some activity going on, there's limited time in our evenings for bathing. They can do it themselves, but they still like to take their time doing it, so it's not just a quick & easy thing.

Now my boys on the other hand, probably need bathed more often now that they're playing outside & getting filthy. Problem is, as I stated above, there's usually not much time in the evenings. I could do it in the mornings since there's probably time, but mentally I always tell myself what's the point of bathing them first thing in the morning when they're just gonna go out & make a mess & make the bath pointless?

Which brings me to my "story" for today. I mentioned how we were crazy busy last weekend with all our egg hunts, but I did not tell about all the fun the kids had outside as well. Since it was Good Friday, Tom had the day off work. He borrowed a digger (don't know the official name...sorry!) from our neighbor & finally moved around the huge pile of dirt that has been in our front yard for forever. Most of it went to finish back-filling all along our driveway. He also filled in some bare spots & holes in the backyard. I worked on cleaning inside the house much of the day getting it under control & the boys were in & out. Finally late in the afternoon, Tom took a break & I went to help finish raking out the dirt while he watched the boys. They had a blast in the dirt, sandbox, and just being outside. When the girls got home from school, they joined in the fun. When all the dirt was raked out & "cleaned up", Tom headed to the store to get more grass seed & hay so we can attempt once again to grow some grass. He got a bunch of the grass seed down & hay out, and started watering right away. Well, you know how much fun water is, so the boys had a blast in the mud! Now let me backtrack a minute & just say that they had played outside Thurs. night, too & since they were so dirty I DID give them a bath Friday morning. Now, back to Friday night. I was inside making dinner when in trucked Camden with muddy shoes, and muddy/wet pants up to his knees. He of course walked right across the newly vacuumed & clean carpet. As I turned around to tell him to get off the carpet, in trekked Trevin but w/no shoes on, and both his pants & shirt soaking wet. He of course tracked his mud across the floor, too. I realized immediately that the only option at this point was to put them both in the tub. I ran to the bathroom & started the water in the tub. Then I grabbed Camden & took him back to the front foyer to remove all his clothes so I could throw his shoes outside to clean up. As I took him back to the bathroom, I discovered that silly me had left Trevin alone in the bathroom, so he had proceeded to hop in the tub w/ALL his clothes (& diaper) on. What a MESS!!! The water was so dirty that I had to clean the tub before I could actually give them a bath. Oh, and did you remember that before all this started that I was making dinner?? Once I got the boys settled in the now somewhat clean tub, I returned to the kitchen only to discover that the soup I was making was now burned & sticking to the bottom of the pan. At that point, Tom walks in obviously clueless to all that is going on & mentions that it smells like something is burning. Yeah, what else isn't new?

In the meantime, the girls are happily playing in the garage & are just as filthy, but at least keep it from spreading all over the house. After I had bathed the boys, I just put them in their pajamas since it was getting late. We still had to eat, but one would think that we could make it through the meal w/o too much of a mess. Think again - we still ate the soup I had made (we just skimmed off the top) and since I turned my back to Trevin for a minute, he proceeded to dump the last of his soup (bowl & all) over his head. Since he had already had 2 baths that day, I told Tom it was his turn to bathe him because I refused to give him 3 baths in one day!

Let me just say that the rest of the weekend, the boys had several more baths. I truly think I outdid myself this week,and I seriously lost track of just how many baths they got! Gotta love boys, and gotta love that they're not afraid to get dirty!!