Mr. Toothbrush

This is our new obsession. Rogan has a green toothbrush, and he has become more and more fond of it. I think it's great! I mean, my kid LIKES putting a toothbrush in his mouth for fun... worse things could happen.

Up until last night, there was only one major drawback to his fondness for Mr. Toothbrush:

He has to hold it.

This caused the occasional fit at bedtime, where we would take Mr. Toothbrush from his deathgrip to properly brush his teeth. It was a 2 person job, one person to brush, the other person to hold a wiggling Rogan's hands down and he fights hard to get back Mr. Toothbrush. But, luckily, this didn't happen very often. (He behaves better for Ryan than for me when it comes to brushing his teeth). But as he's getting older, Mr. Toothbrush has become more and more popular. Rogan loves putting it in his mouth, sucking on it, and even properly brushing on occasion (such a SMART KID), and playing with the bristles on his fingers.

YESTERDAY. We go to the bathroom for bathtime. I start filling the water, he is standing on the floor, REACHING AS FAR AS POSSIBLE for his toothbrush on the counter. It is WAY out of his reach, but he does everything possible, tries every angle to get to it. No luck... and he has a fit. Not a large fit, more of a "here is what's to come in the terrible 2's" kind of fit. I let him have it, c'mon, it's a TOOTHBRUSH!!! who am i to deny him?

Sooooo, Mr. Toothbrush took a bath with Rogan last night. And they had great fun. So much so that Rogan's coveted yellow cup, which is ALWAYS in his hand throughout the entire bath, was set aside for Mr. Toothbrush. That's big. I was laughing, Rogan started with Mr. Toothbrush in one hand, and the yellow cup in the other. But he usually has one hand free to play with other toys, splash, and whatnot. When the time came to free up one hand I could TOTALLY TELL he had to think really hard about which item to let go of. So cute.

After the bath, Rogan and Mr. Toothbrush got dried off, then we brushed teeth (which was holding Rogan's hand as he held the toothbrush and brushed since he wouldn't let go), then Mr. Toothbrush went to bed with Rogan. Last night I could tell Rogan was tired, he was yawning and rubbing his eyes on our way home from daycare, so I tried to get him to bed early. But he was up too long and he was so tired he through another fit when I put him to bed. Usually he goes down without a peep, but if he's too tired he'll fight it and cry and want to be cuddled. After 2 times of going back in for some extra cuddles, an hour past his normal bedtime he fell asleep. Mr. Toothbrush didn't make it through the bedtime fit. When Rogan gets mad he throws all of his stuffed animals out of his crib. Mr. Toothbrush had the same fate last night. Sorry, Mr. Toothbrush, can't win 'em all.

... I will be buying a NEW toothbrush tonight for Rogan. Mr. Toothbrush will now just be for play, and hopefully we can keep a different one to use for the actual BRUSHING.