Let us take a moment to appreciate exactly how filthy Daniel is at the end of a day of preschool in the spring time. In addition to spending time in the school garden (which at this point consists mainly of sitting in the dry dirt) there is also a grassy/dirt area adjacent to his playground, which is great open running space as well as additional opportunities for dirt-sitting/digging.

 Daniel is also quite fond of the water table in the playground and often has to change clothes after soaking himself. Today, the shirt was wet, but it was warm enough to keep it on for the walk home and windy enough that it was mostly dry by then. This picture does not fully do justice to the thin layer of dirt all over his neck and cheeks--stuck to the sunscreen that must be applied before outdoor time. (Aside: Daniel's skin sensitivity continues this summer and even the extra-sensitive sunscreen that worked last summer gave him a rash this year. We're now on to an uber-natural one that pretty much only contains zinc oxide and it's working well. However at $15 for 4 oz. it could be an expensive summer!)

Let's just zoom in on those legs and feet. Would you believe that, except for the toes, those socks were white at the start of the day? Dirt. Dirt. Dirt. His teachers call it "true evidence of time well-spent." I tend to agree, but, still, I wish I had a walk-through shower at my front door. (Aside: Daniel was experimenting with scissors today--on the bottom hem of his shirt. Thankfully, this shirt was already damaged with a little hole in the shoulder area. Still, we had a stern talk about using scissors only on paper or string, not clothes!)

On the plus side, given all this dirt, (and Edward is no slouch himself in this regard) I took the opportunity while John was away to introduce the concept of the shower curtain. We needed inspiration one evening to break through the exhausted, lonely whining, so I used my best, breathless, "Oh my gosh this would be so cool!" voice to ask if they wanted to unfold the shower curtain and take a real shower behind it.

This went over like gangbusters. We've used the hand held shower with mom or dad in control for quite some time now, but this was taking things to a whole new level. It's not quite as fast, but with a parent watching from the corner and offering detailed, step-by-step instructions (pick up the soap; rub it all over your hands to get lots of bubbles; put the soap back in the soap dish; rub your hands all over your arms/armpits, etc.) the job gets done. We do need to work on not wiping away water drips in the eyes while our hands are soapy though. Little life lessons.