A Brush of Luck, and Aging

I wasn't blogging at the time, so allow me to reminisce about the time I was practically in the poorhouse from buying so many toothbrushes.

About 6 months ago, Theo had an obsession with brushing his teeth. He would grab a toothbrush and the toothpaste, and bring it to one of us. We would put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, and he'd brush his teeth, which was really just sucking on the toothbrush. He would proceed to leave toothbrushes all around the house, causing me to throw them away and keep buying more.

For a while it was cute, then it got frustrating and expensive. I tried boiling the toothbrushes that were found around the house to save some money. But his "habit" was still a pain in the neck. Especially because we could never find the toothpaste, and because all sense of which toothbrush was whose was lost.

And so we phased out teeth brushing altogether, not brilliant parenting, but a temporary solution.

Now, my big boy has a purple toothbrush that he knows is his. He will take only that toothbrush. He knows to put it back when he's finished with it.

He brings his stepstool to the sink to follow my routine of taking the toothbrush, turning on the faucet, wetting the brush, putting the toothpaste on (I still have to do that part for him), brushing teeth, running brush back under faucet, putting toothbrush back, and finally, putting his mouth in the running water to rinse. There are two flaws in his routine, however. One, he doesn't spit the water back out. And two, he doesn't shut the water off. I think that last part is to bug me.

I never taught him the routine, he just picked it up from watching me. My smartie.