Throwing the Baby in the Bathwater

For a few months Derek has been firmly against baths. Once he learned to verbally protest, bedtime in general became one big verbal protest. But about a month ago, Allen made up a game that Derek loves and gets him in the bath. We pick him up and swing him around to throw him in the bath. 1….2….3….Wait a minute! You still have your shirt on! So then he takes his shirt off and we pick him up again. 1….2….3….Wait a minute! You still have your pants on! This is HILARIOUS! We can also pretend to throw him in other things that are not the bath, like a chair or a bed, or the sink. Then he takes over: "Wait a minute! That's not a bath. It's a chair!" I think he made his own personal Guinness record for phrase length with "Wait a minute! There's no water in the bath!" I think he needed some help putting this one together, but notice that it doesn't follow a formula like the other phrases. So many reasons to like this game: the vestibular stimulation from the "pre-throw", the parents being SOOOOO stupid, the endless variations that still follow the logical formula, and the way it eases the transition into the bath and to bed by drawing it out.

In other news, I must apologize for my poor blogging lately. This past week was unusual and exhausting. My work is hiring two new teachers and transitioning to a new semester. We also got hooked up with a new speech therapist (for free!) at the Scottish Rite clinic. We get to see her twice a week! Yay! So far her office is a hit. Allen took Derek Wednesday (I had to sit in on teacher interviews). When he came in on Friday he asks "Where's the bus?" and starts rooting through cupboards for the bus. The therapist let him root through and got him to ask her to go get it. Then Derek played with a good variety of things while the therapist and I talked: the bus, a stove, a marble run, a ball ramp thingie. The ball ramp thingie had three colored balls and four colored holes for the balls to fall through. Derek would match up the red ball to the red hole and push it through, green ball to green hole, yellow ball to yellow hole. Then Allen started "messing up" the color matches, and Derek started scrambling to re-match them. It was a really funny game, nonverbal except for Derek's deep belly laugh and squeals. Then they put the marbles in the ball ramp thingie, then tried to put the big balls in the marble run. Hilarity ensued. Until we had to leave. Then sadness ensued. But the therapist's conclusion was that he already has some really good skills and has a great sense of humor.