Brush Teeth!

Brushing my teeth is no longer a solitary activity, and if I attempt to do it alone, I am quickly "caught" and am forced to start over.

Amelia loves brushing her teeth, but will only brush her teeth if I brush mine at the same time. Otherwise she just sits there with her toothbrush, alternating between staring at herself in the mirror and running the toothbrush under water.

If I have started before she comes running over, she demands: "Brush teeth! Amelia brush teeth!" and we have to do the same routine which starts with: "Mommy toothpaste!" and I have to put (more) toothpaste on my toothbrush before we can move onto "Amelia's toothbrush!" "Amelia's toothpaste!". We also have to make sure that after applying some to her toothbrush, her toothpaste is turned around correctly so she can see the strawberry. A creature of habit (or routine), this one is.

She doesn't brush quite as much as she just sticks her toothbrush in her mouth. I try to encourage her, thinking maybe she'll mimic what I'm doing a little more closely, and she does a few brushing motions. My teeth are usually clean before hers and so I try to help her with a few brushing motions. She'll get there. My helping her allows me to also wrestle the toothbrush from her hand as she isn't fond of putting it up. I think she'd sit there for an hour if I let her since she loves to turn the water on, run her brush underneath for a quick second and then put the brush back in her mouth as she admires herself in the mirror.

I learned my lesson a few weeks ago to not even try to brush my teeth without her and it's second nature now to say, "Okay Amelia, let's brush our teeth!" What am I going to do when she goes to college?