growing baby

Just after I put Mateo in the bath tonight, I noticed a spider dangling less than an inch over his bathtime book (kept in the corner of the tub).  I thought Mateo might find the spider interesting so I pointed it out to him (while I’m not fond of most spiders, I have a soft spot for Daddy longlegs).  Mateo looked, nodded that he saw the spider, gripped my arm and tried to climb out of the tub.  I guess that was a scary spider!  Mateo refused to go back in the tub while the spider was in the corner, so I had to hold Mateo with one arm while I navigated the daddy longlegs onto a toilet paper roll with the other hand. After I put the toilet paper roll (complete with spider inside) in the corner of the bathroom, Mateo allowed himself to be re-lowered into the tub.  However, for the rest of the bath, he kept pointing to the corner where the spider had been and also to the corner where the spider now was (though all that was visible was the toilet paper roll).  I also sang him the itsy-bitsy spider several times to remind him that spiders are nice.  I actually translated the song into Spanish so that he would understand that the song related to the spider in the tub (which I’d been referring to by its Spanish name).  Mateo also kept occasionally gripping my arm during the bath as he looked for the spider and trying to climb out of the tub again.  This was by far the shortest bath he’s taken in a while.  Poor Mateo–and all because I thought he’d find the spider interesting–in fact, I thought I was going to need to keep him from trying to pet the spider!

Then during pre-bed storytime, we were reading about Miss Muffet which, unsurprisingly, had an illustration of a spider.  I told Mateo that was a spider and he pointed in the direction of the bathroom.  He’s got a good memory, this one.  We’ll see how tomorrow’s bathtime goes!

And, finally, a new word update: Mateo’s been saying “bubbles” since we got back from Oregon.  He’s a bubble addict!