February 25, 2003 - Tuesday
Our typical bedtime routine starts Jeremy's bath at about 7:00pm. Actually, he brushes his teeth first because he loves to do that so much. Then there's a bath and a song from mommy. She says he'll usually point to the crib after a song or two to indicate that he's ready to sleep and she'll put he in bed and leave. He's just so good-natured and accommodating. Then, she'll come down for Harry at about 7:20, he'll bring a graham cracker to the bathroom by about 7:30, probably as something of a stalling tactic, but it takes a little while for the tub to fill with water so it doesn't really matter. He'll brush his teeth after the bath, then go to his room where I'll talk with him and sing he a few songs and that usually takes something like 20-25 minutes.

Tonight, Harry needed a diaper change a few minutes past 7:00. After four straight days of success a week plus ago with pooping on the potty and receiving a Thomas friend bribe, Harry stopped cold. Well, he stopped pooping on the potty, but thankfully not pooping. He's been mercifully regular since the trouble two weeks ago, albeit not at a similar time every day as was his norm last fall. Since his first day back at school was the day he stopped pooping on the potty at home, I've wondered whether going back to school and mentally facing the mere idea of using the school mini-toilet was enough to set him back. There's no way to know for sure, but the early potty training successes have been tempered.

So, Harry's need for a change coincided with Jeremy's bath. Do we put a new diaper on Harry for just ten minutes? I wondered.
"Maybe we should just put him in the bath," I said aside to his mother.
"With Jeremy?" she's asks.
"Yeah, why not?" I asked rhetorically.
"Harry, did you want to get in the bath with Jeremy?" mommy asks.
After a moment's consideration, Harry smiled and said yes.

Harry thought it was pretty fun. Jeremy seemed trouble, perhaps just because the normal routine had been so dramatically altered. There was more change, too. Since Jeremy was almost done with his bath, he got out first and I puton his pajamas while mommy finished washing Harry's hair. Then, as she was finishing with Harry I sang three songs to Jeremy (Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Over the Rainbow, and What a Wonderful World). Amazingly, in his fifteen plus months of life, that's really the first time I've done his bedtime singing. Although, on the other hand, it was about the same time in Harry's life, when he was weaned, that I took over putting him to bed, too. It's just with Harry I had sung so much at naptime that it seemed so natural and that's not been the case with Jeremy more than a few times. Alas, mommy came in right at the end and Jeremy realized that she had not been there, so he would not settle for me putting him in his crib. I went to sing to Harry. It was still earlier than usual, so I stayed with him for about a half an hour.



Comments, Opinions?