My child looks like a cancer patient. Head swathed in fabric, she works away on her breakfast eggs, and I sit back watching and sipping Darjeeling. For weeks now I've been looking for a practical solution to the problem causing two baths a day for Aimée: food in the hair. Not just a few crumbs, but vigorously rubbed, caked, smeared the moment I turn my back during meals.
One would think this a simple problem solved with a wet cloth, but with as much hair as this child has, all that creates is a greasy little rats nest. Only three ideas have come to mind until today:
1. Watch her every second to make sure she doesn't put her hands anywhere near her head. Big time commitment.
2. Bathe her after each meal. Already been doing this and it's not my preferable future.
3. Shower cap her. Meals would take twice as long because she would do nothing but pull it off between each bite. What toddler can resist the crinkle of plastic?
Today the solution hit me square in the head and I now see the pile of cloth dinner napkins on my table as more than a nice way to wipe my mouth. They are the answer. Tied firmly, they do make her look like a cross between a Russian babushka and a cancer patient. There is a hint of concentration camp too, but it's contradicted by those cheeks.
Is it sad that this idea is worthy of a post to me? If you are like a friend of mine who was over yesterday at lunch you're rocking back and forth with laughter. If you don't have children I can't blame you for rolled eyes and moving on. But this is life for me right now. Celebrating small solutions. Reveling in the bits of my day that feel successful. I hope you are smiling with me.
