Glow in the Dark Bathtime

Yesterday was rough. I don't know what happened to my little man, but he woke up on the wrong side of the bed and never recovered. There were tantrums, defiance, a mean-spirited little heart (oh how I hate that!) and whining, whining, whining. The time-outs and spankings just kept coming with no lasting effect. Finally, after yet another spanking at 5 o'clock I sat on my bed with E on my lap and prayed for inspiration. I didn't know how to break this ugly behavior streak and I was not going to make it to bedtime with my sanity intact at this pace.

Then suddenly it came to me - a bubble bath! He didn't need the bath, but it's a great way to contain the little man and give me a chance to sit still at the end of the day when we've run out of other things to do. And for whatever reason Sweet B FREAKS OUT if you put bubbles in the bath, but she's totally entertained watching Squirt playing in them. It's a Win-Win for me. If she's not in the tub, he can't hit, splash or drown her.

In went the Squirt with some bubbles and that's when I remembered my friend Ronda telling me about glow-in-the-dark baths. We rarely amp up bath time around here because I hate raising expectations. But yesterday called for drastic action, so I went to the hall closet and pulled out some of those glow-in-the-dark bracelets you get for 4th of July, cracked them open and tossed them in.

Um - SUPER FUN.

I was entertained for 20 minutes just watching Elijah's glee. The bubbles hid the sticks themselves so it was as if the water itself were glowing green, orange and blue in different spots.

He hunted for the glow sticks, waved them around like magic wands, had Britain toss them in to the water, stuck them between his toes, up his nose and all manner of other things. It was definitely a hit.

And praise the Lord, when he got out of the cold bath tub AN HOUR LATER, the nasty toddler attitude was gone. So thank you Ronda and thank you Jesus!