Matthew's First Bath

Matthew's umbilical chord finally dropped from his abdomen, which means that he is officially able to take a real bath with real water in a real baby bathtub. Truly a momentous occasion in the Kane household. Colleen took the opportunity to do just that, give Matthew his first real bath. He handled it about as well as we expected...about as well as Christopher did his first bath. (Christopher's first bath given by his Daddy who woke him up and put him in an arctic abyss of a bath....Karen got to witness that one. It was definitely one of my "learning" experiences.) Colleen unfortunately had to tackle this situation herself as I was otherwise incapacitated with Matthew's older brother who was refusing to take a nap. Not only did she give the kid a bath, but she was also able to knock out some pretty good photos of the whole situation. Bravo, Colleen....bravo. (If you could see me now, you'd be witnessing me imitating Charles Dutton's infamous clapping session at the end of the movie "Rudy").

...all the while, I was in Christopher's room pulling out some Nanny 911 tactics from his bag-o'-tricks. If you're wondering what trickery was afoot before stoning me to death or setting me aflame on a wooden steak, I will briefly explain. Christopher has been having "difficulty" napping in the afternoon, and he needs an afternoon nap for the sanity of everyone in the house. He's taking advantage of having the freedom from the seclusion a crib offers and keeps getting up to play...he's being a 2-year old and also pushing some limits. So, after 2-hours of playing "Christopher's-Out-of-His-Bed-but-Ran-to-His-Bed-When-Daddy Opened-His-Bedroom-Door-Peek-a-Boo", I decided to give this Nanny 911 trick a shot. Basically, I put him in bed and told him quietly, "It is nap-time, Christopher. It is time to sleep." I then sat in the room against an opposite wall and read a book. I ignored all of his whining and crying (aside from one instance when he knocked his dome pretty hard on one of the guardrails), pleading and "no"ing. When he got out of bed, I simply rose from my seated position, picked him up, and put him back into bed without saying anything to him at all. Well, I must admit that Nanny 911 might be on to something here. He was asleep within 20 minutes after playing the aforementioned "Peek-a-Boo" game for almost 3-hours (I'm not typing all that mess again and using cut-and-paste annoys me...sorry). So, we'll see how things go tomorrow.

The much bigger story, however, Matthew got his first bath today and there was much rejoicing.