This is the way we brush our teeth...

brush our teeth,

brush our teeth,

so early in the morning!

SJ loves to brush his teeth!

 

Having a parent brush them ... not so much.  Hopefully he's doing a good job - he does it often enough!

We love this crazy boy and his pearly whites!

A Reason to Call Poison Control

Here's a memo to all girls out there who are planning to have tea parties with their stuffed animals.

If you are looking for something to serve as a straw, a black marker is probably not your best choice.

That's right... Katie Anne decided to have a tea party with her stuffed animals in the foyer while we were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner on May 3.  She set up all the animals with little cups, saucers, and plates for tea snacks.  Then, she decided everyone needed a straw for their tea cup.  What do you do with a straw?  You sip on it, of course.  Unfortunately, when you sip on the cap of a marker for a long time, the cap fills with spit... and ink.  When the cap pops off in your mouth, your mouth fills with black inky spit.  Not a good thing.

So, Katie Anne came running up to me, crying and screaming behind her hands (which were pressed tightly to her mouth), with blackish-blue something streaming out from between her fingers and running down her arms.  I freaked out - I had no idea what was pouring out of her mouth, and she wouldn't tell me because she thought she would get in trouble.  Finally, under threat of a spanking, she told us that she'd sucked on a black marker.  We rushed her to the bathroom, and Saunders started rinsing her mouth out as fast as he could while I called Poison Control.

Luckily, the very nice and understanding Amanda at the Poison Control Hotline said this was a very common thing with kids, and that - since the marker was washable - Katie Anne would be fine.  All we should do is rinse her mouth, wash her face (and hands and forearms since it poured out of her mouth), and brush her teeth.  Then, she needed to drink lots of water to dilute any ink that was in her stomach.  But, Amanda warned us that it might take some time for the ink to wash off... and it did!  Katie Anne was sporting the ink mouth with black lips and gums for almost three full days!

FYI ... all these pictures were made AFTER about 20 minutes of rinsing, scrubbing, and teeth brushing.  In the heat of the moment - when I thought my kid was dying of some kind of freak esophagus eruption or coughing up black blood or something - I didn't take the time to snap a picture of how terrible it actually was, but trust me ... these pictures don't do the first sight of her screaming and crying with blue-black liquid pouring out of her mouth any kind of justice.  :)

I've Got Her On Retainer

Katie Anne found my retainers in the back of my bathroom drawer last week. She was entranced by them, wanted to know what they did, and - of course - wanted to try them out!


I got these retainers made in eighth grade when I got my braces off, so that would be sometime in the spring of 1995... about 14 years ago! She wanted me to try them on and show her, and so I did... surprisingly, they both still fit!


I can't believe they still fit, although admittedly a little more snugly than the last time I wore them, which was probably six or seven years ago. I guess that's a testament to Dr. Acuff who did my braces, and to the fact that I wore them every night until I was in college!

**Also, Katie Anne took that picture of me all by herself with my camera! Budding photographer!

We Brush Our Teeth... Swish-Swish-Swish

**Okay, I've been saving this post until Vanessa (and Josh, too) got back from New York. I wanted Vanessa to be sure to see it... you'll see why in a minute... and I was afraid she'd miss it while she was out of town. So, Vanessa, this one's for you- and your child, Dora!

Last week, we went to Target and bought new toothbrushes for everyone. Katie Anne has been resistant to brushing her teeth lately. We thought a new electric toothbrush might do the trick since she loves the one she's got at Gigi and Granddad's. Katie Anne got to pick out her own toothbrush, and she chose a Dora the Explorer one. Saunders and I got the Oral-B Pulsar, and those things are so awesome they deserve their own post, so I'll post about it later when I get NaBloPoMo-desperate!

You may ask- Why did Katie Anne choose a Dora toothbrush?
Is she a Dora fan? Not really.
Does she love the show? No, she's never seen the show.
Does she have other Dora toys? Nope.

She got the toothbrush because she thinks Dora is Lily McWhorter. I don't know if she really thinks that's Lily or if she's just associated Lily with Dora because Lily loves Dora and has lots of Dora stuff. Lily looks NOTHING like Dora, so I'm guessing it is just an association she's made. (Although, she does say "Momma!" when she sees Angelina Jolie on magazine covers, and I think that's because of the uncanny resemblance I bear to Angelina.) Either way, whenever she sees Dora on a store display or on a product, she squeals, "Lily!!!" So, she did not want a Dora toothbrush... she wanted a Lily Toothbrush!

The whole time she brushes her teeth now, she talks to and about her Lily toothbrush. So, I just had to make some videos to show Vanessa because she gets the biggest kick out of it, and I thought everyone else in the blogosphere would, too! So, here's a video of Katie Anne using her Lily/Dora toothbrush for the first time, and then another of her brushing a few nights later. You can see Lily/Dora Mania continues!