Adventures in toothbrushing

JJ LOVES to brush his teeth, and I’m just going to go ahead and give myself a lot of the credit for that. There are still many fatherly things I haven’t mastered. But through persistence and creativity I’ve made this one activity both fun and productive. Here are a couple of things I’ve found help make toothbrushing your toddler a less painful ordeal.

1. Buy this awesomely fun toothbrush. A while back I blogged about the Crayola light-up toothbrush. Well, the red one started to wear out, so I got JJ two — one in each of his favorite colors. (Well, it’s two of the three colors he knows at the moment.) Now whenever it’s time to brush, he gets a choice. Plus I get to hear him say “gwee” (green) or “puh-pah,” (purple) which never ceases to be über-adorable.

2. Buy this awesomely funny book. I originally bought “Pony Brushes His Teeth” — and a couple of others in the series — for the wonderful illustrations by Oriol Vidal, but liked this one in particular. Not just because it was pertinent to an issue we were currently dealing with, but because I was pleasantly surprised to find this story involved an activity with a little pony (no, not THAT little pony) and his Dad.

Each of the spreads involves ‘lil pony doing something with Dad pony, starting with eating and then going through all the steps involved in brushing teeth. I found it fun and refreshing to see a youngster and his Pop doing something together that wasn’t sports- or car-related. Good to see a father (even if in equine form) participating in the day-to-day life of his child.

The book ends with Lil’ Pony spitting on poor old Dad. Which makes me very curious as to what happens at the end of the Duck Goes Potty book…