Remember those long, luxurious hours spend soaking in a hot bubble bath?  Good book in hand?  Maybe a little music playing?  Yeah.  Me, either.  After a long run tonight, there was nothing my body wanted more than to soak in a near-scalding bathtub, letting my mind unwind after a long first day back at school.  And then the bathroom door came flying open.

It was all I could do to not slide under the water.  I knew it wasn’t Barkley; the intruder had used the doorknob to enter.  It could only be one person, since Justin was watching the Sugar Bowl.  It was he-who-should-have-been-sleeping-but-wasn’t.  Robert Gaetano Manna, himself.  Fortunately, between the incredible bath bomb from my sister and the powerful tub jets, I was completely covered with bubbles.

Robbie stood there, taking it all in.  “Mom, are you dirty?”

“Yes, honey.  Why don’t you go back to bed?”

“I need to take a bath, too, Mom.  I’m dirty,” Robbie declared as he started to take off his shirt.

“Wait!’ I screamed – we’ve reached the age where this whole situation was about to get extremely awkward.  “You’re not dirty!  You don’t need to take a bath!  Go back to bed!”  And, I’ll admit, my voice got a little more high-pitched with each sentence, envisioning all of the therapy sessions that were sure to occur somewhere down the road when Robbie remembered taking a bath with his mother.

But then I remembered what I wrote yesterday – about cherishing every moment – and sent Robbie to go get Justin.  Ten minutes later, Robbie and I were both in our bathing suits, enjoying bubbles that covered Robbie when he sat in the tub.  We pretended Robbie was a snowman – a melting one, as he watched the bubbles fall from his shoulders down his body and back into the water.  Robbie slipped all over the place, pretending to be a merman (after a brief lesson in gender, as he was declaring himself a mermaid initially).

All of a sudden it happened – the moment that makes giving up a moment of tranquility completely worthwhile.  Robbie grabbed my face in both of his hands, stared into my eyes, and said, “Mom, we’re having fun together, aren’t we?”  Before I could respond, before I could even fully hold onto the moment, it – and Robbie – had slipped away.  I sure am glad I was paying attention.