You can imagine what it was like to bathe her, especially washing her hair. She always struggled with bath times and when she started to learn how to do the high pitch screams... *face palm* Bathing her was one of the times of the day I used to dread as it was always like a war zone. The screams, the cries, the mess. Yes, the mess in the toilet, and also the mess I am in from a hard earned victory.
Thankfully, as a mum, you find all sorts of ways to calm your little one, to help him/her conquer fears. I don't remember exactly when, but perhaps when she was before 2 years of age, I started to play games with her in the bathroom. She was interested in shapes then, and I would ask her to find and point out all the shapes in the bathroom that were on the ceiling. Circle - and she would point to the round spotlights. Rectangle - and she would point to the shape on the false ceiling. It also varied to identifying the eyes, nose, ears, eyebrows, cheeks and other features on my face as I stood over her... as long as she looked up as I hurriedly shampooed and washed her hair all in that time. Soon, she understood that it was fun time when it was hair time, so she did not struggle as much, and started to look forward to bath times.
That was a huge achievement for me. It meant she enjoyed more of her day, did less crying, I had less to clean up after the bath, I looked less like a mess after her bath, and we both enjoyed our time together for an additional 20 minutes of everyday.
Then, the swimming pool / sea / water park.
Even as she conquered her fear of bath time, she always had a love-hate relationship with the swimming pool. She loves that huge body of water - to jump around, walk around, and when Papa/Mama carries her around... and splashing other people... until she gets a water splash in her face. Then the siren begins.
As she got older, she coped better with water splashes, but her insecurity about having water in her face, or accidentally having her face dipped under water, meant that she was not comfortable to take a float and play by herself, and that she could not really enjoy herself to the fullest. She always had to cling on to me or her Papa, unless we were just sitting in the baby pool with her.
Really love this pretty piece on her.
We knew that this was not the way and we had to help her conquer her fear. We wanted her to learn to have fun in the pool, as other kids do. So mighty Papa bought this cute little shark float vest from Toys'r'us, along with a few other floaty toys like plastic boats, an inflatable dinosaur (one of her favourite toys now), and started to bring her to the swimming pool every chance we get, when he is back in Singapore.
Even if she is still afraid of dipping her head under water, we will continue to help her in conquering her fears one step at a time!
Thanks for reading about our munchkin's little achievement and sharing along in our happiness!
Till our next post!