baby bath time – Rebecca Cuneo Keenan

There was one product I meant to include in my holiday gift guide that slipped through the postpartum brain cracks. (How long are we allowed to trot out the old postpartum excuse? I’m pushing a year and a half now. I’m sure that counts.) I was going to let it slide except every time I give my kids a bath I’m reminded of just how awesome this stuff is. So Imma tell you about it anyway.

LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics has introduced a new soap for kids called Fun. It’s actually more like a cross between play dough and soap and shampoo and bubble bath. Like most Lush products, it’s preservative-free, made of safe and gentle ingredients and free from animal testing. It also comes in five vibrant colours and delightful scents. It’s also awesome. Did I already say that?

A little goes a long way, so rip off a small hunk and wrap the rest back up. Squeeze and twist and shape and mold.

Irene always claims the pink, of course, so Mary gets green. I love how it colours the bath water too.

And then, after sufficient molding and swirling and splashing (and a little washing too, if you’re lucky), you get bubbles.

The kids all LOVE this stuff. And just so you can feel extra good about buying top-quality bath products that your kids will love, Lush donates 2.5% of Fun sales to helping rebuild play spaces for children in post-tsunami Japan.

I’m sorry I kept this from you for so long. Let me make it up to you with a giveaway. I’m giving away two complete sets of Fun (all 5 colours in each set). Contest open until 11:59 Friday, March 8. Canada and US entries only.

I’m also trying out this Rafflecopter app because the giveaways are becoming increasingly hard to manage. I hope it’s easy enough to use. Please let me know if you have any issues with it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post and giveaway are sponsored by Mustela.

Ah, bath time.

Don’t you cherish those quiet moments with your babies? There’s the squeals of delight as they learn to splash and the soft suds on their newborn skin. There’s the classic baby bath-time fauxhawk and the little hooded towels and the smell of fresh clean baby as you nuzzle their bare bodies.

I’ve got to admit, I had to go pretty deep into the vault to pull out those memories. Because, dude, three kids. Bath time is less like a mini spa experience and more like hosing down the elephants at the zoo. Well, if the elephants were really, really dirty with fingernails that could kill a man.

Sometimes Irene hops into the shower with me, but usually I do all three kids in the bath in one go. Well, we take shifts. First baby Mary gets her turn and then Irene will hop in with her. I pull out Mary and then Colum hops in with Irene and they play while I towel Mary off and get her into her pjs. Then I put her into bed or hand her over to Ed if he’s home and tackle Irene’s hair and ~~nag~~ encourage Colum to try to wash his own body.

It’s really a shame, actually, since Mary LOVES her bath like neither of my other kids ever did. The other two were hot and cold, going through phases where they seemed to enjoy it and others where just the sight of lukewarm soapy water was enough to trigger a full-on melt down. But not Mary. She has loved every single minute of every single bath since the day she was born.

So it was pretty nice to get to write this post for Mustela because it forced me to slow down and enjoy the experience with her. I hardly even called out to the other kids to please, please, for the love of all that is holy and good, stop that and go to your room and get undressed. I focused on Mary and her giggles and her little baby toes and her little baby bum and her little baby elbow dimples. I dwelled on all her little baby bits that are getting ever bigger and will soon be giant, dirty kid parts and it was good.

Baby fauxhawk!

DIY wall tiles. Oh dear.

Best smile in the history of the world.

The Mustela newborn cleansing gel itself was really nice too. It’s hypoallergenic, alcohol-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, phenoxyethanol-free and all of that good stuff. It’s used in hospital nurseries around the world and they apparently say in France, “Mustela çà sent le bébé!” This is the first time I have ever used any Mustela product, but as soon as I took Mary out of the bath and breathed in her baby freshness I thought, yes, this is exactly how a baby should smell.

CONTEST CLOSED

Congrats Stephanie!

But try it out for yourself! Shoppper’s Drugmart carries Mustela or WIN their Dermo-Cleansing newborn gel right here. Leave me a comment telling me whether or not your baby loves or hates the bath and I’ll draw a winner next Tuesday, October 9 at midnight using random.org. CANADA only.

Although this post has generously been sponsored by Mustela, the opinions and language are all my own.