Rowing with Our Mermaid

I can tell that the disruption of adjusting to kindergarten, preschool and James’ new job (he started 2 weeks ago after being home for nearly 7 months) is starting to ease. This morning the girls were very vocal about missing James and not wanting him to go on a bike ride today. So James decided to stay home and we could all take it easy together. After breakfast the girls and I engaged in a ritual that we haven’t enjoyed for quite some time: a shared bath. I started out by running a very hot bath and the girls played and listened to stories read by James. I had a relaxing long soak and then cooled the bath down for the girls to join me. After the girls were all washed we pulled over the shower curtain to enclose the bath, took up our makeshift oars (wooden spoons, plastic spoons or just our hands) and sang our bath time song, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, with great gusto. A couple of years ago I created a second verse that we sing to calm the excited crew between energetic rowing:

Calm, calm, calm your boat
Time to take a rest.
When we have more energy
We’ll row our very best.

It is so much fun pretending to row our boat. It can become quite frenzied (hence the absolute need for the shower curtain) and then we sing the calming verse very quietly. The girls love it. Of course we spend so long in the bath that we all have very wrinkled fingers and toes when we get out, but it is such a fun way to clean up and bond together after a week of school and work routines. After Caitlin and I got out of the bath this morning Ashley played alone while the water drained out. She chased the soap around the bath, gleefully and purposefully letting it slip through her fingers each time it looked like she’d caught it. Just as the water was almost out she lay on her back and pretended to be a mermaid. She hasn’t done that recently and used to do it all the time. She looks so sweet and relaxed and I love seeing very visibly that she’s feeling good.

A photo of our mermaid taken earlier this year: