Rubber Ducky, you're the one

I got up the other morning, did a bit of work on my computer, then looked at the clock and may have sworn just a little. Mornings are generally a hurried affair these days, even with getting up at 4:15 a.m.

I bolted toward the bathroom to turn on the shower, then pulled back the curtain and burst out laughing. Floating around and looking a little grumpy at being caught under a waterfall of cold water were three rubber duckies who looked like they wanted to swear, too.

I had forgotten to remove them from the tub the night before after pulling my granddaughter out of the tub and popping the drain. Sorry, little duckies.

The ducky armada was new at our house, because Maggie forgot to pack bath toys when she was loading her trunk with the 500 pounds of stuff it takes to send a 14-month-old baby girl off to Granny J and Grandpa’s house for a week. And somehow, Layla took the other bath toys home last time she was visiting. 

This small error was noticed when I plunked her in the tub on her first night at our house. I put in a little bit of bubble, made sure the water was the perfect temperature and plopped her in. She batted at the bubbles for a few minutes, ate a few and announced they were pretty, then looked at me expectantly.

Oh, right. Toys. Um… looking around the bathroom.

I handed her a washcloth, since it was nearby and we needed it anyway. Layla declared it pretty, then sucked on it for a second, made an icky face and blinked her enormous blue eyes at me.

Hmmm…my old Mommy skills kicked back in and I yelled for Grandpa to come watch her for a moment. Then I grabbed a few measuring cups out of a drawer in the kitchen and handed them over. Perfect!

Layla mentioned they were pretty (do you see the theme, here?) and had a blast playing and eating bubbles and banging cups together. There was a moment of potential disaster when she accidentally dumped a full ¾ cup of water in her face, but she just humphed a few times and went back to her bubbles.

The next day, I found a bin full of rubber duckies at the store and picked out three of them. She still played with the measuring cups every time I gave her a bath, but she did it with cheerful company.