Conquering the Drain

Its been a long four months, a long, long four months. That has been the amount of time that Madeline has not had a bath tear free and sitting down. (Not to worry, she has had them, but not pleasantly...) Why? The drain, that nasty piece of metal that stares at you beneath the water and sucks all your well......dirt away. It's mean, menacing, and we're pretty sure it is out to get us. A slight glance gives us shaky knees, red cheeks and a 30 second splash-water-soap-scrub-Dryathon. A mystery at first, but the sleuthing 007 parents we are, questions were asked, fingers pointed to objects around the room to ask if there was fear....there was when the gleaming metal of the drain made contact with the fresh glimmering water....
We tried everything, covering the drain, (it was obviously still there...) buying markers, using bubble bath (TERRIFIED, since we couldn't keep "tabs" on what the drain was doing,) distraction, singing, dancing, papa got in the tub fully clothed (true) since he thought we were making progress, not so, mama had the splashing, bubbling, singing, fun bath of a lifetime....by herself, we found out showers were fun, but only because the drain was far, far away....we were out of options, and powered through it...until...

A breakthrough...we decided to immortalize the drain, put it on a pedestal, make it one of the family. We started by waving to the drain, saying goodbye and hello. Then we blew kisses to the drain. Mama and Papa first and reluctantly two weeks later Maddie. Pretty soon we were encouraging all Maddie's stuffed animals to blow kisses, then her eight Lego people (since they could come in the tub.) Soon Maddie was asking us to take a bath to blow kisses to the drain. She never sat down or moved, just stood there, but no tears. Success #1. Soon we busted out the toys again, and closer and closer she inched her tush to the water, but would not sit. But she squatted. Success #2.

Now being the observing, intelligent folk we are we noticed that the "squatting" was really hovering two inches from the tub floor and an inch from the water. Hey, after four months of filling the tub to normal bathing level for a 25 second bath we were in conservation mode, hence low water. Things were going well, should we chance it? What the heck. At bathtime tonight the water level kept going up, and up, until little miss Dry tush was, well soaked. But she didn't sit, not until she wanted to draw with the bath markers....negotiation time..."if you sit, you can draw.". With reluctance and bravery her tush hit the bottom of the tub for the first time in four months tonight. What follows is history...a half an hour whirlwind of happy splashes, marker drawing, watering ourselves and cramming four months of bathtub fun into the evening. Check and Mate.

So to anyone who may experience this fear, whether it be yours or your child's, this truly worked. Now all I need is a volunteer to mop up the flood that is our bathroom floor...