The Dry Bath

Tonight we had an exciting evening-  -the power went out.  Not because of any inclement weather.  It’s a BEAUTIFUL night out.  And not even because of construction.  Nope - -we live in the middle of nowhere, so sometimes, for no reason, our power goes out.

In a flash of a second EVERY plan I had for the evening went out the window- - dinner, bath time, watching TV, reading my email, calling some friends (damn portable phones)  I raced to the window to see what the other neighbors were doing.  All two of them were doing…well…nothing, really.  Another point about living in the middle of nowhere- - people are pretty chill about life. I EXPECTED people to be running around the streets shaking their non-defrosted dinner meats at the hydro poles in fits of rage.  But no - -none of that.  Just the usual silence and the odd bird chirp.  I would just have to deal with this.

SO bedtime was interesting.  Toby is a great sleeper but only – ONLY – because we made him into one with countless nights of crying (on mommy’s part) followed by more countless night of crying-it-out (on Toby’s part) followed by his illness, followed by this sentence all over again.  So we tend not to MESS with bedtime routine.

Tonight this took some serious creativity on our part.  Bath time was particularly interesting.  The boy has had a bath every day before bed for the past year.  (Do we get extra parenting points for this or just the smug knowledge that we have an uber-clean child?) But because we live on a well (because we live in the middle of nowhere) we can’t run water while the power is out.  So we had a “dry bath”.  We weren’t sure how it would go over but Toby didn’t really seem to notice.

We all took our usual positions –Rob waited with the towel while I sat on a stool in our tub and we played with bath toys and I used a damp cloth and cleaned him a little bit and we banged on the taps and played with our penis - -the usual bath time stuff.

Then it was bedtime without the FAN for white noise or the NIGHTLIGHT for reassurance.

He did quite well until I put him in his crib and he started to cry.  That’s right, little guy, SOMETHING is not right but we’re not just sure what it is….

He’s off to sleep now and I’m putting my creative powers to the test, trying to make dinner without the microwave or running water. Thank goodness for laptop batteries….

ADDENDUM - -the power is back on.  I have learned something from tonight : If you think your middle-of-no-where-I-can't-use-the-water-to-water-the-plants-like-my-husband-asked-me-to-because-of-the-power-outage excuse is a good one -- its not.  Apparently you can use the lake water.  Also, if your miraculous BBQ has solved your dinner fiasco, just make sure the tank is full of gas before you count your chickens or all you'll be counting are half cooked sausages.