We've been going non-stop lately, from Alabama to Florida and back again while my Mom has her treatments. So I haven't exactly had much time to be as creative as I typically am. However, we did have one (almost) full week in between trips, during which I managed to give Spence a PEPPERMINT BATH!
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I actually found this idea while searching for Christmas card inspirations, sort of, one family's Christmas card on Google Image Search was of a little boy in a green-watered bath tub, surrounded by red and white balloons, sporting a beard made of bubbles. Although I didn't want to do that for our Christmas card, I thought it would be a neat surprise for lil man on an otherwise uneventful day. Basically this a Christmas themed bath, and boy did he LOVED it!! So I thought I'd share on here :)
PEPPERMINT BATH
What you'll need:
1] One dollar-store pack of multi-colored water balloons. ($1)
2] Green liquid food coloring ($1)
3] Peppermint Extract ($2.38)
4] Your tub, and stinky baby or toddler ;)
It only took 10-15 min to prepare the tub, as my son ran around diaper-less and laughing like a maniac, while also trying to hike his little thunder thighs up over the side of the tub before it was totally ready. I loved how anxious he was, as soon as those balloons went in, it was game on. He kept pointing and sweetly saying "Ball-ooon, Mama, Ball-oooon, bat-tha (bath)" which of course made my Mama heart swell up with joy.
How to recreate the Peppermint bath in your home:
STEP 1: Pick out the green, red & white water balloons from the multi pack.
STEP 2: I filled the green ones with water (so they'd sink),
and filled the red and white ones with air from my asthmatic lungs.
SIDEBAR: I definitely recommend spending an extra dollar at the store for a balloon pump if you have asthma lol.
All in all, roughly 40ish balloons made their way into the tub. About 5-7 of them broke while being filled (as to be expected with dollar store balloons) but no big deal, just keep an eye out for any pieces that may fall to the floor for little hands to grab. Same story when they are in the tub, not to be left alone of course.
STEP 3: Once all the balloons are in the tub, it's time to get those green bubbles flowing! I used the store brand liquid green food coloring and added drop after drop to the water flow until it looked "Christmas green" to me. After 15 drops.. I stopped counting (sorry) but let me add, the green food coloring did not stain my son's skin in the slightest, and I probably used around half of the bottle, in a half-full standard sized tub. He even got in while I was still adding more food coloring. And he played in the tub for at least 45 minutes.
STEP 4: Add the liquid peppermint extract (sorry forgot to take a picture of this). I used about 3-5 tbsp of Watkins brand, and it was pretty potent, definitely smelled of Christmas for the rest of the day in our house! (Probably because I conveniently forgot to drain the tub lol.)
SIDEBAR: I had an idea afterwards.. you could actually use baby vapor bath wash in replace of (or coupled with) the peppermint extract. It would still smell Christmassy AND help with that common winter cold our little ones usually get. That's a win-win-win!
STEP 5: It's bath time! Bathe em' and let em' play! My little guy already loves bath time, and this bath was no exception. He had a blast being his usual silly self... while Mama sat back, snapped a couple pics, sipped on her hot chocolate flavored coffee, and giggled along with him.
Bing Crosby singing sweet classic Christmas songs in the background made it all the more a joyous occasion.
FINAL SIDEBAR: If you have an older toddler you could also hide small gifts or candy in the floating balloons, and maybe make it into a Christmas Eve surprise.
This was a simple, low-cost and fun way to incorporate the Christmas spirit into a regularly mundane daily event. We enjoyed it so much that I might just have add it to our Christmas traditions list, at least for his toddler years :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!
Hope you're all having fun & making beautiful memories
with your loved ones this holiday season! :)
