Splish, Splash!

We haven't been good about taking pictures of our bathing beauty...mostly because she really was not a fan of baths.  Even after she got through the hospital scrubdown and then her first gentle sponge bath at home...she never seemed to get excited about being in the tub.  As soon as we'd lay her in her little infant sling she'd lay back and squeeze her little arms up by her head and look at me with a look of sheer terror on her face.  She didn't cry or scream, just looked terrified...so pitiful.

Then about a month ago (way past the point when she had surpassed the infant sling weight limit) we started bathing her in the infant tub without it.  She had been sitting on her own perfectly fine, but once her little booty hit the water her little arms went right up by her head and her little face turned up towards us with that same look of terror.  Now the arms up by the head and head turning made it impossible for her to balance so bathing was 100% a 2 man job.  Daddy holds and mommy washes (AS FAST AS POSSIBLE so that we can get her out in a flash).  We had tried splashing, toys, playing and it just seemed to scare her even more so this was our perfect little routine.  Mommy and daddy could get little Nicolette spic and span in less than 2 minutes!  

A couple of weeks ago daddy discovered that she was actually better if she was standing (I think I've mentioned a million times that our child has been trying to stand basically from birth...not exaggerating).  So the Italian holds Nicolette standing and mommy splashes and rubs her down and then basically showers her off.  What 5 month old takes showers?  Mine apparently.

Well something MAGICAL happened this week.  The Italian and I got N's bath all ready and he put her in her normal position,  but she didn't put her hands up by her head like she normally does...she actually started to bend her knees to sit down.  So the Italian carefully helped her sit down and it looked like her hands were going to go up by her head but instead her right hand reached out and very gently "tapped" on the water!!!  Next thing we knew she grabbed the little rubber ducky and holding on to it for dear life sat up in the bath on her own!  We've got a long ways to go before we have a water-all-over-the-floor-fun bath time but we're making progress.

The hospital required scrub down about 6 hrs after she was born)

First spongebath at home...looks fun right?)

Normally a showering position, but...

Sitting down for a change...

"Dear God, Please make sure that I do not drop this ducky" 

Squeezing the life out of the ducky, but still
sitting on her own

Can't wait to see what bath time brings tonight!  We'll need it I'm sure!  Nicolette starts "solids" today (her 6 month birthday)!!!!  She'll be dining on mashed avocado with a nice 2012 Randazzo breastmilk :)

Tootles!