Brushing Teeth

Generally, the kids are pretty awesome at brushing their teeth. But then there are the times when you remember that they are kids and will randomly fight us BAD on it. The other night was one of those nights, and the odd thing was that it was James giving us a difficult time. He was pouting and whining while I brushed his teeth. To let him know why we were doing it, I told him, "Don't you want your teeth to be nice and white? Otherwise they'll be yellow and not good." The little spark of kid curiosity went on in his head, and while still brushing, he looked at me, kind of laughing. Then the thought came in my head, Well, WE certainly don't have perfectly white teeth, and not everyone is able to have good dentist care and have good teeth, so what would he possibly say now with this new information he just got? Kind of covering my sort of mess up, I told him, "What if you had blue teeth?? That would be so gross!!" James just started giggling. I named a few more colors, the very idea of all these colors as our teeth causing fit after fit of giggles. Then I apparently chose the funniest color of all, "What if we had purple teeth?? Eeeww!" He giggled and laughed so hard, he sort of fell off the stool he was standing on. He could not get over having purple teeth. Every day now, he will randomly ask me about having green or orange or black or purple teeth, laughing while he brings it up again. Sometimes, we'll add in white teeth and we'll say, "Ooo pretty!" One way to learn a lesson, right? It's so funny to see what strikes a chord with them. 

Comfort

Today it was a tad cold in our home. Our townhouse is a bit older and the heaters are in the walls. The walls. So it takes a while to warm up our open bottom floor. Anyways, I was chilled and I started rubbing my arms to get some warmth into them. I was sitting on the floor with the boys close by. All of a sudden I feel a rather uncoordinated "rub" on my arm. Little Jack-Jack was imitating me and trying to rub my arm. Though the meaning of my rub was lost on him, he sure was proud of his imitation. 

Later, I was trying to do something important on the computer. And, of course, that means that everyone goes into hyper-drive and sonic level of noise. Sigh. I got a tad terse and Gavin was immediately next to me, patting my shoulder, saying, "It's otay, Mommy, it's otay. You better? It's otay." Gah. So sweet. These boys sure know how to get me to calm down (even though they are the usual cause of me not being calm. but let's not split hairs on that one).

Good Friend

Gavin picks up on the oddest things. It's usually things that I have to think about where they came from. Lately, whenever we ask him something that he doesn't want or he just doesn't like he answers back with, "No! I just want to be a good friend!" Huh?? I was wondering if maybe he had picked up on me giving them their pre-playdate talks about how we need to be nice, not yell, share, etc. But I don't mention being good friends (but is a good idea, come to think of it). Maybe nursery? At our church, we meet for three hours. Two of those hours Gavin goes to nursery with the other kids, ages 18 months to 3 years. They play, they snack, they learn songs, and they have church lessons. When church is over, I pick up James first and then we head over to nursery to pick up Gavin. By the time I make my way over there, he is usually the last kid and they are ready to head out. Or Brad has already gotten him. When James was in nursery, I tried to talk to the nursery leaders a little bit to see how he was doing and what he had learned. I don't really get to do that now with how late I get over there. Maybe I'll have Brad ask this next Sunday...

Scratch Your Back

Tonight was one of those fun, goofy nights. We had a pretty successful Family Home Evening and once we were done, waited for the right time for bath and night-night. While we waited we played this or that, just enjoying one another and being silly. 

I was sitting Indian-style, in front of our couch just watching Gavin and Jack-Jack play near me. All of a sudden, something that wasn't a hand was rubbing my back. I then hear James' cute little voice, "I scratch your baaa-aack!" He was so happy to be scratching my back. "I'm scratching your back, Mommy!" He then stops (and I see he was using a jagged toy saw to do the job) and comes next to me on the ground. He says, "Let me see your hands!... Oh! They are dirty... I think James can help you wash them up." He then takes me by the hand, helps me up and guides me to the bathroom. "I can turn the water on for you, too" We turn the light on and he starts the water. He grabs the soap and tries to pump some into my hand... I secretly helped a little. "I think I will wash mine too". We wash our hands together and I am done waaay before him. He washes and washes and washes his hands. I have to tell him he's all clean and to rinse rinse rinse! He does and we go back out. He acts like nothing happened. I ask him if he wants to see my hands. "Yes! Oh, they are aaaalll clean! Mine too!" He shows me his hands and I give him a kiss. He is such a sweetheart.

A little James tidbit on this matter- he is obsessed with washing his hands and drinking the water from the bathroom faucet. Like he will stay in there an extra 5-10 minutes drinking water and washing his hands. It is so funny. He is now taking it upon himself to bring us water in our own Dixie cup. How thoughtful. It's sad that I am starting to put my foot down on him for not using up the cups (he goes through a ton) and the water... I'm hoping we find a happy compromise :)

Potty Time

I really want Gavin potty trained. Really want it. He was so interested when James was learning last year, that I thought he'd be a piece of cake when the time came... but he's turned out a bit more opinionated and stubborn than I thought. Which isn't bad, just a tiny little wrench we need to work through. We tried right before the holidays- bad, bad, bad idea. It was scrapped within an hour. Now... now we are buttering him up for it. 

Today we were watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (I swear my kids don't watch TV all the time!) and it was the potty episode. I talked to Gavin as much as I could while it was on about how he could be like them, did he want to go sit on the potty like Prince Wednesday just did?? "Yes!" Whaaaat??? I've been trying to get him interested in just SITTING for at least a month now!! We went into the potty and he stood in front of the toilet, trying to figure out how to get on. I told him to wait, and I rushed to the garage to get the froggy potty we have for him. I put it down, pulled his pants down, removed his diaper... and he sat down. For at least 10 seconds! He said he was done (and he tried to pull his pants up with no diaper... sheesh) and we went back out. I tried to see if it was interested off and on later, but he insisted he was done. 

Gavin may say "no" a lot to the idea, but he says no to everything. He does seem to be warming up to the idea of being potty trained more and more. We're prepared for the day when I am brave enough to do this thing... another little wrench is the one-year old. Cute little devil who is obsessed with the bathroom. 

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this...