Naomi is home sick today. We are aghast that perhaps we have all contracted another round of stomach virus (Can it be? The fourth round?), but if not, it is some kind of food poisoning that is hanging on for a few days. I am staying with her until noon, then super daddy is coming home to watch over her in the afternoon. In the meantime, I am “working from home,” which means, “checking my email over the web.” Neat. Because her condition means that a few times a night she wakes up covered in poo, and because after all you do have to bathe babies occasionally, and because when she wandered into the bathroom this morning and did her bath sign vigorously and repeatedly (while wrapping herself up in the shower curtain and saying “Hiyeee!”), I thought it would be a good idea to give her a bath.
While I was scrubbing up the tub a bit (there are a few elements in this paragraph that give away clues to how hopelessly untidy our house is currently, can you spot them?), Naomi decided she would be helpful by “putting away” some of her laundry that was in a basket in the hallway. This struck me as enormously cute, and I decided to sneak out and get the video camera to capture this new behavior. Three times she took something out of the basket, walked around the corner with it, and deposited it in one of the baskets in her changing table where all her clothing and blankets and whatnot live. As soon as the camera comes out, she reverts to her more natural behavior (cuter when she first started doing it six or eight months ago), which is taking clothing out of the baskets and spreading it all over the floor.
In any case, this explains why the video camera was in the bathroom when the naked sprite finally got into the tub. Before I had a baby, I was always a little mystified at the allure of the naked baby picture. Babies look cute in clothes, was my line. But for some reason, seeing our little bunny all naked wakes up some primal cute-worshipping mommy love chemical gland, and I am struck by how beautiful and perfect and vulnerable and so damn cute! she is. I know, it’s a little much. Sorry. But this leads us to the point where again I am compelled to uncap the Panasonic and capture some baby bath goodness to watch when I am old and Naomi is off sitting on the supreme court or taking a van tour of the Northwest with her all girl ska band. So I started filming, and she proceeded with her normal bath things, including her newly emerging skill- pouring! And then, out of nowhere, she lost her balance and toppled backwards, and her head thankfully hit nothing but the surface of the water, which naturally it broke right through, until she was…underwater! I turned the camera off at this point, and rescued the unwilling swimmer, who somehow, when I righted her, leaped to her feet and wailed with righteous indignation (though only for a moment- she really likes having a bath and was keen to get back to it).
Anyway, the fact that moment that her head went underwater is now preserved for all time in the video camera could be seen as a sign that in fact I am ready to go to great lengths to get my shot. Or it could just mean that I have that unfortunate lag time between comprehending a situation and reacting to it. In any case, I think it is a good indicator of personal growth when you can admit to yourself that you are just not that great at everything. I am not going to be the next Anne Geddes (you’re welcome). But at least I am smart enough not to post the video stills of my baby’s dunking- I would like to keep her, thanks!
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