Bath Time is a chore!

I know lots of people who have kids who look forward to and love bathtime. That however is not the little girl I was blessed with this time around. It has been such an eye opener to me that someone could hate, and I mean hate, not just mildly dislike,but truly hate taking a bath. My other kids all loved to splash and play in the water. Ellie from the time she got home from the hospital has been a different story. She screams, she freaks out, she is hysterical. I think if you came in our house during bath time CPS would be called thinking someone must be beating that child to get that kind of scream. But no, it would just be us giving Ellie a bath. We have had help from others in trying to help her overcome this. My great friend Elizabeth spent days listening to her screams working with her day after day to get her to tolerate a bath. That was a great first step for us. Then over the summer the kids took to bathing her as she did better with them than me. With them it became playing in the water not getting clean which she does not like. When I bath her I have it down to two minutes flat. She will tolerate a bath going to 10 minutes if John or the kids do it. Well I thought I would document at almost two what bath time has evolved to.

Step 1: Play in the water. Here is she singing into the shampoo like it's a mike.

Step 2: Completely freak out while she is being washed. Can I note this is just getting her hair wet so we can put shampoo into it.

Step 3: Look into those eyes while you scrub the shampoo that says, Oh dad, oh mom, how could you do such a cruel thing by getting my hair wet? But I might forgive you if you sit and rub my head like this!

Step 4: After freaking her out again see step 2 she works on forgiving you by you letting her pour the cup of water and have fun with it.

Step 5: Minutes later she pulls the plug and screams to get out and be wrapped in a towel and the deed it done for a few more days.

Definitely not a girl who gets bathed every day like maybe she should be.