Last night my wonderful, amazing husband had to give a talk, which left me in charge of the bedtime routine. Bath-time has been terrible for us here. She is so frightened at the outset of every bath that she clings to you and gets both of you soaked, refusing to sit in the tub. I feel like I'm hosing the poor kid down as I dump cupfuls of water over her. (The shower is even worse!) But recently, since she is building up trunk muscles and finding new ways to sit other than "w" sitting, she has taken to the bath. Especially if it has bubbles. The first few minutes of fear are still there, but once she overcomes the initial shock, she's happy to sit down and splash. So last night for the first time in a while I felt less like the mean-scrubby-bath ogre and more like a mom cleaning up her kid!
For the last few minutes of her day, we usually let her zone out in front of the tv. But I didn't feel up to listening to sponge bob last night, so I asked if I could read her a book instead. She nodded, so I picked out "The Very Quiet Cricket" by Eric Carle. This is a great book, about a little cricket who wants to say hello and make friends, but can't get any sound to come out of his wings, until the very end, when he tries one last time. When you turn that last page, a built-in speaker in the book "chirps" like a cricket. It always makes me tear up, the metaphor about trying to keep trying. Penelope got to that chirping sound and looked up at my wet eyes and said, "more!" So we read it again. Then she signed "more book" and I got a whole stack of boardbooks from her room, and we read them for over twenty minutes! She has that kind of attention span, but it's usually reserved for her independent play. I was so happy and proud.
Just like the very quiet cricket, I am learning to keep trying, and learning that it's okay for Penelope to keep trying, too. One day she'll chirp with the best of them!
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