brushing teeth

for several months now, aidan will only brush his teeth with mama.

i can't remember exactly how that happened. paul usually does the night-night routine, which included the teeth brushing , diaper changing, and tickling into pajamas. for some reason, aidan pulled the mother of all tantrums because paul wouldn't "let" him do something. so i stepped in and now i am his co-brusher of choice.

here is the routine:

i pick aidan up and go the foot of the stairs.

"is this where we brush our teeth?"

"Noooo..." aidan says.

we then go to the closet, the fridge, the kitchen sink, the laundry room and the garage door before finally stopping at the bathroom. (lately, he'll say "noooo" even if it is the right room, with a sly look on his face as if to test me.)

"do we need this?" (i point to the step stool)

"we need this.: (aidan agrees)

he then climbs the steps and i hand him his cup, toothbrush and toothpaste. he likes to squeeze the toothpaste on his tigger brush, which he does pretty well. he always says, "there you go!" then he asks me to turn on the water.

now since he is only almost two, he isn't the most prolific of tooth brushers, so i give him a chance to do it himself. he's pretty good with the front back and forth routine, but that's about it. so about a minute into it, aidan will hand over the brush and then i get to finish the job while he plays with the water, filling the cup that holds his brush and then taking sips. somehow, i brush his teeth between the sips and the water pouring. he's much better about opening his mouth lately, but it used to be quite a game for him. i found that if i start with brushing his tongue, the rest of the mouth follows.

then, he pours the last of the water and we put the brush and toothpaste back in the cup. sometimes he'll make faces in the mirror or play with the water left in the sink. then, finally, he runs to daddy for his goodnight story-- but not without blowing kisses to mama.

for the next few days, paul will have to do toothbrushing duty while i'm attending a conference. i hope aidan doesn't put up too much of a fight!