Of Bath Time and Jerseys

After we fed the boys supper this evening, Alaina took off for a Moms’ Night Out with some of her friends from church, and I had responsibility for the boys. They played contentedly downstairs for a while and I read the WSJ. Then it was bath time.

As you will recall, bath time is one of the boys’ favorite times of the day, next to meal times. At least that’s how it appears to me. But first things first. The CD that was on was becoming rather tiresome to Daddy’s ears, so we had to change that. Both boys watched as I removed a couple CDs and inserted a few new ones. Then we headed to our bedroom so I could get out of my work (dress) clothes and into board shorts and a tee-shirt (knowing full well I would likely become almost as wet as the boys, despite my place beside, not in, the tub!)

It was rather comical to watch the parade as I hung up my clothes. Of course, Pippi was the first one into our closet/bathroom. Then Patrick toddled in. Just as I was asking Patrick where his brother was, I heard the sound of four limbs pounding the carpet, and Calvin charged (crawling at a high rate of speed) into the bathroom. They each had their own method of getting there, and it brought a big smile to watch each of their arrivals! :)

As I changed, I heard the music become softer. I noticed that Patrick had disappeared, and marveled – could he really have watched me adjust the volume and then do it himself? But when I went to investigate I discovered what had really happened – he had slowly closed the door to our room, gently “turning down the volume”!

Alaina reported recently that Calvin had discovered the delight of putting his face into the bath water. Tonight, he discovered a new “trick” – putting his head (especially his face) into the falling water from the tub facet! It’s so funny to watch him do it: he tentatively pushes his face in, then pulls out – blinking furiously, sputtering a little, looking for all the world like he hates it, but then, as the water drains away, becoming more and more proud of himself for his bravery and daring. And of course a little praise and encouragement from Daddy is all he needs to immediately do it again!

Patrick likes to do many of the things his brother does, but so far Calvin’s bathtub daring-do hasn’t been one of them. He continues to develop his friendship with Pippi, though, and tonight was trying to put her leash on her! Later, one of the boys almost “lost” the leash entirely; Daddy had to look all over before finding it. I can only imagine one of us frantically looking for it sometime when Pippi really needs to go outside, realizing that one of the boys has “hidden” it from us!

Yesterday the boys wore their new Colts jerseys for the first time! Unfortunately we didn’t get a great picture of them, but you can get the idea from the ones below :)

Did we mention that Calvin is an acrobat in training? :)

In this shot, it looks like Patrick is mid-way through attempting a field goal!

Here, it only looks like Patrick is punching his brother :)

Happy boys, happy Daddy. (Some of us pose better than others :) Go Colts!