Fill your tub with luke-warm water (and a little derturgent if you think that will help. I choose not use derturgent as I feel that it adds to the ammount of suds you’re trying to remove at the end of it all). Strip your ‘Kid, or, if you only want to do a facial, strip top half of his outfit.
For a full bath: Dunk your ‘Kid into the water, making sure to get all of him wet and allow him to soak for a few minutes (if he’s really dirty, let him soak for at least half an hour). Next, grap the pump soap and pump onto places where you can see dirt, then massage the soap into area with toothbrush. Rinse area and repeat if need be. Once the whole body has been soaped and scrubbed, remove him from the water and empty the tub.
Refill tub again with luke-warm water and replace ‘Kid. Now is when you will start to try and get rid of the soap (I find that this takes me three or four tubfulls of water, as the body holds in a lot of soap). Once you are sure all of the soap is gone (soap’ll leave a stain which will take another bath to get rid of) and he is as clean as you want, remove him from the water and place him on the fluffy towel you have for drying.
To help the drying process, I sit the ‘Kid on the middle of the towel, fold the towel over him and then press down on him to get rid of any remaining water. You now have a choice of things to do; if I’m feeling lazy or if it’s wet outside (those rain clouds opened up when you're halfway through washing), I put my kid in the dryer. For this, place him in a pillowcase, tie the top of the case and shove him in the dryer for around an hour (depending on how wet he was), this’ll allow him to get to the stage of almost-dryness. I then put him somewhere warm, head down bum in the air to allow the sun to finish drying him off.
A careful note about placing 'Kids in the dryer: If you leave them in the dryer for too long, the head gets really warm and becomes rather soft. Don't be too alarmed, as the head goes back to normal firmness once it's cooled down.
Another idea is to use two coat hangers. Pass the body through both hangers so that one hanger supports his neck and the other his knees, this way you can hang him up somewhere to dry and it’ll allow the air to circulate around the body (but, do not do this if he is still dripping, as gravity plays against you and causes the water to collect at the feet and fingertips).
For a just facial: Get a hand towel, fold it in half lengthwise and then lengthwise again. Wrap this around his neck so that it will stop the rest of his body from getting wet, if you have a CPK sized shower cap, use that to cover his hair (as this both keeps the hair dry and out of the way). Wet the toothbrush and place a little toothpaste on the bristles and then rub the paste onto the face. Wash the foaming paste off with a damp cloth and find out what has or hasn’t been removed. For the nasty stubborn spots, use the creme cleanser on a cloth to scrub them. Once again, wash the face, making sure to get all of the paste and cleanser out of the mouth, around the nose and the eyes.
The hair: To wash the hair, I’m a real softy and I use my own shampoo for all of my ‘Kids (cornsilk and otherwise). For my ‘Kids with yarn hair, I use my good old two-in-one, as this type of hair doesn’t need that much conditioning. For my cornsilk ‘Kids, I use the two-in-one and then after that is washed out, I use a revitilising conditioner as this helps with brushing the hair out afterwards (I also use a no-more-tangles spray that I had lying around from when I had long hair). I find that it’s also easier to handle the hair for brading and whatnot when it is wet.
Clothing: While your ‘Kid is having a bath, you should zip his clothes through the washing machine at the same time if possible, then while he is drying, you can iron the clothes (if you are fussy about having pressed clothes) and find a needle and thread for any tears that your ‘Kid has managed to put in their clothes during play. Once the clothes are ready and the ‘Kid is dry, dress him up and take him for a visit to Grandma’s house.
Finishing touches: If your girls are in pretty dresses, they should have matching ribbons as it adds to the look and ribbons aren’t too expensive to buy, especially if you pick them up from the ‘ends’ bin at the drapery store.
A few important notes:
- If your 'Kid has nail polish on him or her, and you are thinking of using nail polish remover to take it off (or anything else that has any form of meths in it), don't get it too close to any of the painted areas on you 'Kids' face (eyes, eyebrows or blush) as this will also remove those too.
- More coming soon.
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