brigid | Jan. 28th, 2011

Niko has a cold. It’s pretty awful! He’s a terrible snot beast and he’s got this awful gaspy wracking cough that’s worst when he’s lying down, so night time has involved a careful corralling of pillows and propping him up against my body so he’s more or less upright and can breathe better. It’s rough, but he’s getting better, and THANK GOD (knock on wood) I’ve managed to avoid this death cough.

I’m a little lax on the baby cleanliness department, I’ll admit it. He gets a bath about twice a month, more often if he gets dirty. But mostly he’s fine with a wet wash cloth on his face and hands or anywhere else he’s gotten icky. A bit part of this is because of his eczema which, let me tell you, this not bathing him? Is GREAT for his skin. His tata and I both are sensitive to a lot of soaps as well, so avoiding them, I’m sure, is good for him. The last time I gave Niko a bath, I washed his hair. Then we had pudding and he rubbed pudding in his hair. So I had to give him another bath and another hair washing. I guess he felt he had to restore the filth equilibrium or something. But both those hair washings were really hard. He did not like the water on his head! NOT ONE BIT!

I gave him a bath today, and I told him ahead of time what I was going to do (pour water on his head three times, one two three, shampoo his hair and get it clean, and then pour water on his head three times, one two three), asked him if he could pour water on his own head (he could! sort of. He mostly missed. He got some of it! And he looked very pleased with himself.) and then narrated what I was doing as I did it. He took this hair washing better than the previous ones, although he rubbed some baked beans in there during lunch. Again, filth equilibrium.

I’ve been trying to clip his nails for the past few days. They are getting, like, french manicure long. And although for a while we had a nice little nail clipping routine worked out, he was totally rejecting my grooming advances. Then, today, he came up to me with our copy of “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.” (To clarify: he came up to me for the fourth time today with our copy of “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.”) Before I settled into reading it (again!), I told him that I had to clip his nails FIRST before we read the book. And AFTER we clipped his nails, we could read the book together.

This pleased him.

The promise of the book was so compelling that he even picked up the nail clippers and brought them to me (he had, previously, hidden them (although not very well)). I set to, clipping his nails. When he tried to pull his hand back, I reminded him about our deal and gestured to the book, and he was once again all compliance. So we read about Good Old machine-lovin’ Mike (who is helpfully referred to as “an Irishman” on the dust jacket) and then read “Bread and Jam for Frances,” which is a great book and I’m looking forward to getting ALL the Frances books.

For your amusement, check out these following videos involving “Werner Herzog” (not really Werner Herzog) retelling children’s stories: