Bubbles and giggles

I have fond memories of bathtime when I was little. I had very long hair when I was young and my Dad used to give me baths and wash my locks for me every night.

I can still remember, vaguely, this nighttime routine. I had a bubble bath bottle in the shape of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street, sat in his rubbish bin, with a sign saying 'I hate baths'. I also had a waterproof book called Danny Duck and I still know the words off by heart to this day.

It was a fun time of day and Dad used to make up silly rhymes to make me laugh, including one that went 'the boy stood on the burning deck, picking his nose like mad, he rolled it into little balls and flicked them at his dad'. Silly, huh?! I used to love those silly rhymes and it was just one way that Dad tried to make bathtimes fun for me, as I guess I wasn't always so keen, if my choice of bubble bath was anything to go by.

Now that Ethan is big enough to go in the proper bath by himself, it's opened up a whole new world of fun for him. He's always liked bathtime and as he's got older, he's joined in the splashing games, trying to see how we the can make Mummy or Daddy in return. 

Bathtime has always been a special time for hubs in particular, as when he'd come home from work in those early days, it was the part of Ethan's routine he could take charge of. Now, I look after baths during the week and hubs has a go at weekends but either way, Ethan is having more and more fun now he's allowed to roam free in the tub (fully supervised of course).

A couple of months ago, Ethan's bathtime dreams came true as I won a competition at BritMums to receive a whole heap of toys from Munchkin. Ethan already had a few things to play with in the bath, including foam numbers and letters, a singing fish and some squirty plastic toys; Colin the crab is his particular favourite.

Just some of the brilliant bath toys from Munchkin - see them all here

I never knew there could be so many fun and imaginative toys for bathtime. Munchkin has an amazing range to choose from and we have kept a few toys back for when Ethan is a little bit older, as otherwise a) there would be no room for him left in the bath and b) we don't want him to get bored of things too quickly.

At the moment, he particularly likes the spinning ball floats, squirty animals and the pour and strain whales and soon we will set up the skirting turtle shower and ball and hoop set. 

I certainly don't think Ethan will be getting bored any time soon - in fact, I think he will want to spend even more time in the water! I don't mind, it's a really nice time of day as I let him do his own thing as a watch or I will join in by making waves or trickling water over him.

As he gets older, I'm sure there's lots more we can do during bathtimes. We can talk about our day, we can play pirate ships or we could even make up our own silly rhymes about boys who stand on burning decks.

What games do you like to play? How do you make bathtime fun for your little ones?