My Jealous Toddler

I have proof positive that my son is jealous of his baby sister. Today I gave them both a bath, which I suppose is "some kind of small accomplishment." First I bathed my son. He loves to play in the tub and entertained himself with his tub toys for a good long time in my master bathroom's oversized bath. Then, because I am such a great mother, I dressed him completely, including pants, shirt, diaper, etc. Dressing a toddler like him can be especially challenging on days when he is being contrarian, which is almost every day, but I must confess that today was a more contrarian day than usual. So when I say it was some kind of small accomplishment that I gave him a bath, you have to picture him running away from me gleefully while I tease him into his clothes.

Next I bathed the almost 6-month old baby. She's easy to bathe, but I try to be hyper vigiliant as I should when I'm bathing her, which isn't so easy when toddler boy starts climbing on me and saying "my bathtub!" With baby squeaky clean I wrapped her up in a fluffy clean towel and proceeded to put her in a new clean diaper.

But I made a fatal error, which I vow never to repeat again. I didn't empty her water. So toddler boy, all dressed and ready to go, climbs into the baby's bathtub, bathwater and all, and sits in it, saying "my bathtub!" Until he got cold. Then he climbed out, his backside completely sopping wet, and I said to him "Get back in there! So I can get my camera!" He didn't comply.