Lesson Learned

In general, I feel like the best way to get Amelia to do the things I want her to do is to let her see me doing them myself. I eat peas when I don't want them. I wash my hands when they are already clean. And yes, I occasionally fake-sit on the potty. However, tonight, I didn't completely think things through before I made my deal with her. For some reason, Amelia had no interest in brushing her teeth tonight. More importantly, she had even less interest in me helping her brush her teeth. Thus, I made her a deal...if she let me brush her teeth, she could brush mine. What the hell was I thinking?!? After we were done with her, I had to hand over my giant, electric toothbrush and let a 2 year-old do work. She wielded that thing like some sort of foaming light saber. I'm not sure if she brushed away any plaque, but I do know if any was present, she would have beaten it into submission. I'm lucky she didn't knock out any teeth, let alone clean them. To top it off, do you know what happens when you pull a buzzing electric toothbrush out of your mouth? Well, let me tell you...it turns into a vibrating toothpaste slinger from which there is no escape. So, at the end of the night, our final tally was - several clean teeth, two dirty people, and one big mistake.