Judah just woke up a few minutes ago in his own bed crying for rescue. This is a nightly occurence and means that when I fetch him, he's already standing in his bed with blanket & "crib friend" (various stuffed animal) ready to come to our bed. He isn't adjusting to his daybed at all. We removed the front crib rail (is a convertible 3-in-1) but didn't know that we should discuss it with him for some time prior to actually doing it, so our process may have been too abrupt and traumatic. His daybed has been assembled since around 15 April and he has only slept in it twice for naptime and has made it about 4 hours straight at night. He absolutely refuses to start sleeping there and we have to put him down on a palette on his floor or else start in our bed and move him once he's asleep. Then, we wait for the middle of the night "Mommeeeeeee! Daddeeeeeeee!" followed by hysterical crying.

Further keeping us on our toes, we have tried to give him a bath twice this week. Bathtime has always been his favorite activity, so much so that he stays in there until he's a raisin and would get really upset about having to get out of the tub. Now, he refuses to get in. I gave him a quick & dirty on Sunday night where he just stood there refusing to sit in the water and begging me to pull him out. I chalked it up to a long travel day back from Gran's and that he was just overtired. Then, last night the same thing happened. It was very upsetting for all three of us. When Micheal closed the bathroom door, leaving Judah and me, he ran to the door crying and chanting, "No!" Tears poured down his face. He had played at the park and eaten Pad Thai for dinner, and has developed what might be athlete's foot on his toes (peeling?), so we were determined that he would take a bath.

The entire time, he cried, refused to sit in the water, hugged Micheal (who was kneeling beside the tub) begging, "No, Daddy! No!" and even when I got in the tub with him, he still clung for dear life to his daddy. So, we did another quick & dirty and he was perfectly fine once we got him in bed for storytime.

We consulted the "What to Expect" book and it said that it could be either normal two-year old assertion of independence by rejecting things or that he is associating some sort of scary incident (hit his head in the tub, went under water, etc.) and is afraid of the bath. But, it clearly states that until he is ready for a bath again, we have to go the sponge-bath route or else risk permanently traumatizing him by forcing him into the tub (which we did last night before we read the article, so we suck.) All I know is that before our vacation, he LOVED bathtime, and now it's the complete opposite. Maybe vacation away from him is not a good idea at this age.

This two-year old thing is hard!

So, to add to our week of parenthood quandaries, Judah's toes are peeling. His toes looked a little blistered when we retrieved him on Sunday and we figured it was that he had outgrown his shoes, so we bought him some bigger ones. Now, all ten digits are peeling like mad and he has been very fussy about it saying, "Feet! Boo Boo!" and showing us. I looked it up on the web just now and it is either athlete's foot or "toe box dermatitis", which are both caused by moisture yet one is a fungus and the other an irritation. He was mucking about on the ranch last week and may have been in shoes more frequently than normal (he's pretty much always barefoot at home). He also has an ingrown toenail that looks pretty brutal. So, I guess we're off to the pediatrician again. In the meantime, we covered his feet in Tinactin at bedtime.