Splish Splash in the Tub! Toddler Fun

This face. This little face made all my efforts worth it. I saw this idea somewhere (probably Instagram or Pinterest) and thought it sounded like a blast. Since we had lots and lots of colorful plastic Easter eggs around, I decided to try it out. 

At first, Tenley was like "Huh? What am I supposed to do with all these things in here, Mom?"

Then she figured it out and this happened: 

Pure bliss right there. Tenley loves baths and loves showers, but she is almost always reluctant to get in them at first. She anticipates the initial blast of cold or hot water with some trepidation, but once she gets wet, she's all in. 

On another day (well, today) we tried a different bath activity. Just as colorful, but much messier. 

I only permitted Tenley to paint with my acrylic paints because, quite frankly, I found her using some  in her room already (she had been in timeout...) and it was too late to stop her. 

I quickly scooped her up and plopped her in the tub (much to her initial dismay), then squirted a few blobs of paint on one of my palettes and watched her go. 

'

She was quite pleased with the situation. I am hoping over time she will cover all of that bird painting I had begun for Tenley's room. I meant to paint over it at some point anyway, but having Tenley do it for me is so much better. 

It was very difficult to pry her attention away from her painting (which is why she is only smiling in one picture--the rest are blurry because she wouldn't look up from her work for more than a second) and when I managed to, her face tended to look something like this. She was just distressed that I kept throwing off her groove I suppose. 

As for cleanup--the good news is you're already in the tub so any escaped paint can be washed away without much difficulty. And the baby. The baby, too. Messes are unavoidable. Embrace the ones you can.

Well, peace out for tonight, peeps. I did two elephants' worth of laundry today, made a delicious sausage and vegetable stir fry dinner, collected Declan's birth certificate (finally), cashed some checks, and even went to the creepy (and cramped) little social security office and re-ordered Declan's social security card since we haven't received it and it's been--what, almost three months?!?! Oh dear.