Bathtime or bamboo shoots?

I have decided that I officially dislike the time of the day between dinnertime and bedtime. It may be because I'm home all day long with these crazy lovely children of mine or maybe because I'm dying too pee uninterrupted with door closed, but most nights 8p.m. (aka bedtime) can't come soon enough.

But before bedtime must come bathtime and that is a horrible time at our house. I will say that there was a time that I rather enjoyed bathtime, because it didn't used to be my primary task. Back in the day when there was just Jolie and Ella and the idea of having more was a panic attack waiting to happen for Scott, bathtime was done primarily by the Daddy at our house because I thought it was important for our kids to know that Daddy could take care of them too. Plus, Daddy's bathtime was WAY more fun filled with bubbles and overflowing bathwater and lots of splashing and usually went on until the bathwater was freezing the kids' tiny butts off. My bathtime usually had some singing of some sort and there were toys present, but I was much more about getting them in and clean, out and lotioned up in a timely fashion because frankly I was done playing after I'd played all day.

So, for those few lovely years we'd worked out a system where Daddy gave most of the baths and I cleaned up dinner and the house and this worked peachy. But then Cam and Maggie came along and our tub couldn't possibly hold all four messy Seitz's, and it was time to let Jolie and then Ella grow up and take showers in one bathroom while the little ones took baths in the tub because we started to get lots of fun questions about differing body parts and lots of screaming about who got to sit closest to faucet. (Who knew that would be so important?!)

At first taking a shower was fun and exciting for the big girls, once we got past the lessons on "how to officially tell if the conditioner has been rinsed out of the hair so you don't have to get back in when mom comes to check" and that "a wet body doesn't mean it's clean" and my personal favorite "mom's shaving gel is not meant for washing your body or for making the floor super slippery". (duh!) But now the shower has become the small confined space where we're quite certain will host a cage match fight between the girls most nights. Also, I think my girls may have set several records for the amount of time it takes two girls to wash their hair and get ready for bed as well as working on the record for the highest water bill ever to be paid in history of Iowa.

Basically, bathtime is the loudest, messiest, wettest time of the day with much fighting and screeching and usually some crying thrown in. Most nights it is not peaceful and calm and fun anymore like the good old days. I think that getting four children bathed, in their pj's, with teeth and hair brushed could be one of the most exhausting parts of our day, and sometimes think I would rather someone stuff bamboo shoots under my fingernails than do it all over again the next night. But I have to admit, they are pretty darn cute when they're clean and smell like baby lotion...and asleep.