Skip to main content

Father and Son Bath Time

(Almost) every night, Scott gives Soren a bath. This has been his habit since Soren was only a few weeks old. Of course, then our son was a lot less squirmy and protesting about it. Still, it is a special time when the two of them get to spend some time alone.

I always use that time to do the dishes. I stand by the sink in the kitchen and try not to make a lot of noise so that I can hear what is happening in the bathroom. I hear Soren's protesting cough as Scott takes off his clothes. Then the water starts running. I know that Soren looks, fascinated at the running water. Scott puts him in the baby tub, facing away from the torrent and I know that Soren arches his back, trying to keep that tantalizing sight in view. Soren really likes the way the water looks. He'll be arching and squirming the whole time Scott washes him, but my husband is very efficient and it doesn't take long.

My favorite part to listen to is after the bath. I can picture Soren on the floor of the bathroom, wrapped up in his hooded towel. Scott loves to shake the baby down and dry him off, making fun noises and faces. Soren always laughs hysterically. Sometimes, if he is particularly good-natured, Scott will bring him into the kitchen. Soren will still be grinning, wrapped up only in a towel, and Scott will try to make him laugh again. Sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn't. It's all right; that's a special thing for them. It's nice to know that Scott has a fun part of the day with just him and Soren, that he loves.

Scott puts on the cloth diaper; he's better at it than I am. He clothes Soren and then brings him to me for the last feeding of the day. And then I hand him back over to his daddy and Scott sings a lullaby and puts him to bed.

I love listening to and watching Scott during this part of the day. Since starting work full time, he doesn't have a lot of time to spend with Soren before the boy goes to bed. But he makes the most of the time he does have. Scott's a wonderful father. I am very lucky to have someone so fun, attentive, and gentle co-parenting with me. And Soren is lucky to have such a good example. If he would understand, I would tell him. Soren, you are so lucky to have a father who loves you. Someday, your father will teach you how to be a man, I would say. I hope you will listen but even more than that, I hope you will watch. If you watch Scott, he will teach you to be a good husband and a good dad.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...
2 comments
Read more

Surrounded by Love

One of my greatest worries about having four children was that I would not be able to welcome and love my new baby as well as I had the others.  Now that he is here, I feel that he is perhaps the most welcomed and best loved of all my sons.  More on that in a moment. I struggled to bond with Leif in utero, in part because pregnancy was old hat to me and in part because life was busy with too many other things.  The new miracle  growing inside of me was the most normal thing about my life.  There were a few good moments that helped me prepare mentally: doing guided meditations during Christmas vacation, my blessingway on January 6th, and a really good conversation I had with Scott about my hopes and worries.  But mostly, my mind was elsewhere. And then there was the birth.  I should have known that it would be a totally unique experience and that it would prepare me for this totally unique child. Needless to say, I'm crazy about the little guy. ...
1 comment
Read more

ABCs

A couple of months ago I was trying to encourage Soren to draw. For 15 or 20 minutes every afternoon, we would sit at the coffee table with paper and pencil. I would draw stick figures and doodles; Soren would watch, his own paper untouched. After a couple of days repeating my usual pictures over and over, I ran out of ideas and started writing the letters of his name. One day I wrote and drew pictures of all the things I could think of that began with S: Soren, snake, superman, spider, stars, etc. The next day we focused on the letter O. It gave me ideas for drawing, which kept Soren entertained even if it wasn't fulfilling its original purpose. A couple more weeks went by and I didn't put any effort into reinforcing the letters. So I was very surprised when, one day while reading a naptime story, he pointed to the page and said very distinctly, "ess". He was, in fact, pointing to an S. And he was very excited about it. So, instead of reading the book, we sp...
3 comments
Read more