Water Wars

Khan has a love/hate relationship with water. To be specific, he loves swimming, and hates baths.

I'm not sure what his deal is. Isn't a bath just swimming with bubbles, and really shallow water, and scrubbing...and...um...

The kid is a swimming fiend. At first he was content to sit on my lap on the steps and splash. That lasted all of 4 minutes before he wanted to get out into the deep water. If I hold his hands, he even kicks and flails his arms like he's actually swimming. He cries when we get out. I see Olympic gold and a possible marijuana bust in his future.

But baths...he's always hated baths. He screamed through his first-ever bath at the hospital, his second-ever bath at the hospital, his third-ever bath at home, and every bath since then. It's like water is acid, or dirt is some kind of armor against disease (thanks, dark ages). It was bearable for a while, but now he's no longer a baby, but a little boy. Being a little boy involves being as dirty as humanly possible and having snot on your face 24/7, so he definitely needs a bath.

At a yard sale, my mom found the solution: an inflatable duck bath by a company called Munchkin. Squeeze its inflatable beak, and it makes obnoxious quacking sounds. Blow it up, pop it in the tub, fill it with water, deposit baby in water, and he'll splash happily through hair washing and even bottom-scrubbing. It's amazing. We went to the pond today and I had to restrain him from climbing out of his stroller and over to a group of unsuspecting ducks; I envisioned him trying to climb on the poor birds and squeeze their beaks.

Lately he's started drinking the water, in both pool and bath. I figure, chlorine kills anything, and baby bath soap is sure not toxic, so whatever makes him happy (and gives me a few minutes' peace to sit on the toilet and read a book).

Thanks, Munchkin duck bath!