Toothbrushes and Toilets

For a long while now Lily has had a fascination with toothbrushes, toothpaste and brushing her teeth. She will squeal with excitement, jump up and down and ask to brush her teeth numerous times throughout the day. Although she will sometimes want to do this at very inopportune times, for the most part, this type of behaviour would delight any parent. No battles over brushing teeth in our house!

At the beginning of this past summer, we started to toilet train Lily. She took to this quite quickly with the promise of bubble gum for going to the potty. The visual aid of the bright and colorful and -oh so coveted- Bubble Gum Machine was invaluable in the process! As soon as she would hear the start of the tinkle, her face would instantly light up, a smile spread from ear to ear, and she would squeal with delight as she'd sing out "Bubble Gum!!" She was tickled pink and so proud of herself. Again, such behaviour would thrill any parent (especially me!!).

So over the summer, Lily became very independant and would go to the bathroom all on her own. Again, how exciting- this toilet training thing really can be a snap- who knew?

Along with this Independence in toileting, came a fascination with the bathroom and toilet paper (or "toilet napkins" as she likes to call it). By the end of summer, we would often find her in the bathroom quietly playing, putting LONG strips of toilet paper in the toilet and pulling her arm up in the air as high as she could so the wet paper would come back out, still attached to the little dry bit that was clutched in her hand. At the sight of this game, we didn't hear the squeals of delight from Lily, but rather screeches in disgust from Mommy as I quickly lunged into the bathroom in an attempt to intercept the soggy mess dangling in mid-air. I emphatically explained that we never play in toilet water- DIRTY! DIRTY! DIRTY! Her response was always "OK Mom" with a tone that implied- "killjoy"!

Yesterday, as usual,Lily went on her own to the bathroom. After five minutes, maybe even more, I thought to myself "Hey is she still in there?" As I rounded to corner to check, I saw the bathroom door closed but not shut. As I stepped closer and began pushing the door open I see Lily, at my feet, sitting on the floor in front of the toilet with Kyra's (wet) toothbrush in one hand and the tube of toothpaste (0pen) in the other hand!! Now I lunge (at lightening speed- but it feels like I'm moving in slow motion) and as I'm swiping the toothbrush from her hand, I can see that the toilet seat is wet with water as is the floor around the toilet. I instantly know that I didn't get there soon enough and the brush was definitely in the bowl, but to this moment I have no idea if the brush actually made it to her mouth before I got there. For my own peace of mind - I'm choosing to believe it didn't!