Elliot Self Bathing

We had a Bible Study cookout Thursday at our house (despite gale force winds...no exaggeration...we ate inside for the sake of our hair...welcome to Texas). :) Anyway, in preparation for the cookout, I had some extensive cleaning to do in my kitchen (as a result of some extensive cooking...strawberry pie, chocolate cream pie, homemade mint chip ice cream, and homemade vanilla frozen yogurt...yummy). Back on track, when I have extensive cleaning to do, I give Elliot a little more freedom to explore than I usually do so that I can accomplish the tasks I need to in a reasonable amount of time. Well, Wednesday was no exception, while I was cleaning the kitchen, he decided to bathe himself in the kitchen sink. Here's his mischievous grin celebrating my acceptance of his exploration or just the pride of it all together (zoom in on the leg...those are genuine blue dish soap "bubbies"...aka "bubbles" or "lather").

Here he is having his foot soak and deciding which kitchen brush will best exfoliate the dead skin cells off of his feet (his daddy would not be overly impressed with the male foot primping but would be proud that he decided to get the toddler stink off of his feet). :)

Rinsing, blessed, rinsing. Elliot loves to rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse. Water is fun.

Elliot's independence is bitter-sweet. It saves time sometimes and takes more time others. The self bathing episode fell into the latter category. I just couldn't handle the smell of a dish soap laden toddler (especially on his head...which smells like J&J baby soap for about an hour after a real bath and then quickly returns to the "wet puppy" toddler boy smell thereafter...I've heard this is not so with baby girls...sigh), so, anyway, we had to give him a "real" bath after his self bath to return things to a predictable scent at least.

Anyway, the post wouldn't be complete without a picture of sweet baby Will doing what he does best...

Oh, and one day left to vote...don't be afraid to vote for Jeff...he would like to make the point that his birdhouse is more "artistic" because he painted birds on it...your call...let us know what you think...