Breakthrough: Brushing of the teeth

Basically Mr. APL did not like brushing his teeth. He certainly enjoyed sucking on a toothbrush if it had water or "baby" (what he calls his baby toothpaste) on it. But He would not let us actually get a brush to most of his pearly whites. We consulted with Mr. Google which yielded 8,215,093 results in 0.00001783 seconds. The consensus we found was that it was important enough that if the little one refused, it was time to force the matter.

We tried this. APL did not respond well. On two successive nights we forced clean teeth upon Alexander. He cried. He yelled. It was traumatic... for me! I said "No more." They're baby teeth anyway. We could try to convince him but I was not going to be party to the "Traumatize APL for Life in the Name of Clean Teeth" Committee. They're baby teeth anyway (I know... bacteria will remain with him etc.)!

We tried various ways to get APL excited about brushing but each time he would see through our ruse. That when Karin came up with letting him brush our teeth. I headed upstairs with APL. I pulled out my Braun electric, turned it on high, put the handle in APL's hand, and guided the brush into my mouth. He loved it! "Papa teef!"

While he was brushing my teeth I turned on his kiddie electric and aimed for his mouth. APL immediately complied. He let me brush every one of his teeth, including the uppers and lowers in the back. Now when it's time for brushing I say, "Ready to brush Papa's teeth?" And he scampers up the stairs to the bathroom. Breakthrough.