“Those days are long behind me now.”
Corinne splashed and Madison told her to knock it off. She huffed but quit splashing. She washed herself with soap and they practically had to wrestle the showerhead away from her. She was slippery and they didn’t want to make her fall, but the kid had one hell of a grip when she was set on doing something!
After draining the water and wrapping Corinne in a warm towel, Madison went to get Caden.
She looked at Harvey. “I know you’re soaked, but are you ready for Round 2?”
“Next time I’ll wear a raincoat,” he joked.
Caden cried because Harvey had gotten water in his eyes, and acted like a rabid cat who’d been dunked. He had shrieked, choked because he got water in his mouth from shrieking and had clutched his head and screamed, and Harvey didn’t ultimately get the right side of his hair rinsed very much before he gave up and Madison took over.
“Okay, so where are your pajamas?” he said.
“Did you, like, forget to bring them in? Because we’ll get cold,” Caden said, a note of disgust creeping into his remaining sniffles from the hair-washing tantrum.
“Sorry,” Madison said. “I’m new at this too. I don’t usually do the baths. I’m the fun aunt who takes the kids to carnivals and movies.”
“You forgot my clothes? Mommy never forgets.”
“You kind of barged into the bathroom and started the water,” Harvey said. “I didn’t go off on a scavenger hunt for pajamas.”
“They’re in the dresser,” Corinne said. She tossed the corner of the towel over her shoulder with the aplomb of a woman donning her opera cloak and led the way. She chose a pair of flannel pajamas with white ruffles.
Harvey rummaged through the clothes. “It’s too hot to wear those. You’ll sweat.”
“No, I won’t. I don’t ever get sweaty,” she protested.
“How about this gown with the rabbit on it?”
“No! That movie scares Caden. I won’t wear it because it might scare him.”
“He’s scared of the rabbit?”
“No. Officer Judy Hopps does not scare Caden. He’s scared of the otter.”
“Why is he scared of an otter? They’re like furry dogs.”
“The one in the movie is crazy. It tries to attack,” Corinne said, “Haven’t you seen it?”
“No.”
“You have to watch it. It’s really good. We have the DVD.”
“Can we watch it now?” Caden said excitedly.
“I thought it scared you,” Harvey said dubiously.
“Not anymore. That was when I was little. I was maybe one year old when it scared me.”
“It was last month,” Corinne said knowledgeably. Because of course she knew.
“I’m not scared. I wanna watch it. And you can wear your bunny gown.”
“Fine,” Harvey said, digging around for some pajamas to put on Caden. Finally, the kid settled for his spaceman pajamas, and Corinne was in her bunny nightgown and had on, for some reason, a hoodie with rabbit ears on it.
Harvey thought about telling her take it off or at least demanding to know why she had on a sweater with her pajamas when he realized it didn’t matter and decided not to mention it. He congratulated himself on picking his battles and avoiding an unnecessary argument with a small child. He took a picture of the kids to show Bella tomorrow, all cuddled up in their pajamas on the couch. Madison stayed for the movie and they all laughed. The kids fell fast after the movie.
“Okay,” Madison said. “Looks like this is all under control.”