He Said That - 3

He travels a lot. I think I’ve mentioned this before; and (mostly) because of his frequent absence, my husband has always been second-string when it comes to baby maintenance. My memory’s not perfect, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t run out of fingers, counting the number of diapers he changed. And while the muted light of my bedside lamp causes him to thrash around as if there were security lights blazing through the windows, he “sleeps through” any nighttime wakefulness.

But our daughter stopped insisting that I handle bath time every time when she realized her father was more fun.

It’s a huge help, because it means that I can get the dishes washed and clear a path through the wreckage of our day before she’s ready for books and bedtime. (She still refuses to let her dad do these things.) Since the beginning of March, he’s been gone about 30 days, but when he has been home with my profound, repeated thanks, he’s taken care of bath time. Well, all except that one night last week when he had some West Coast calls to make. Or that other night when he had to take some guys to dinner. Or Saturday night when she said, no, she wanted Mama to give bath.

As we finished dinner last night, I was thinking I’d probably do some ironing in the evening, when my husband looked across the table at me and asked, “Do you mind if I go run some errands after dinner?”

“After bath?” I said, sensing where this was going.

And he said (I’m not making this up): “So, I’m going to be giving bath every night when I’m home?”

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