The Battle of Brushing

I can admit it: I didn't start brushing my son's teeth as early as I should have. I regularly wiped his gums down with a rag before he had teeth. After his teeth came in, I sometimes gave him the banana brush to chew on, but until he was about 18 months, I didn't brush every day. And from 18 months until about 22.5 months (today marks 23 months) it has been a battle. Almost every night. And the nights it hasn't been a battle, I haven't had it in me to fight the good fight. I've "forgotten" to brush his teeth. Most mornings it is a battle too, but after sleeping and only having mama milk at night, I didn't feel as strongly about a thorough brushing in the morning. His meager brush chewing and sucking off the toothpaste has satisfied my morning demands.
I tried everything I could think of. One night, I literally heard myself say "There will be no chocolate tomorrow if you don't brush your teeth tonight." Ridiculous. Absolutely absurd. An empty threat and a pathetic one at that. He even knew I was balking. (And of course, at this point, has no ability to benefit at all from a consequence that is inflicted later.) But oh man, in the moment, I meant it. I probably would have threatened no chocolate ever again for the rest of his life, but he lives with his grandpa and I knew this out of my control.
We picked out new toothbrushes together, two of them. A car one and a cookie monster one so he could choose which one to brush with thinking this would be enough of a chance to exert his power of choice. He still chose not to cooperate with brushing. I tried singing goofy songs and doing silly dances.When you wake up in the morning at a quarter to one and all you wanna do is have some fun, you brush your teeth!  I tried reasoning with him. Your teeth with get boo boos if you don't brush and you don't want that! I tried begging. First with my mom-Will you please brush his teeth!!!!! and then with him--Come on, Zav. Please. I just need you to brush your teeth! I dreaded this part in our day. No matter how amazing our time had been, this is how we ended our day.

This one we staged and just pretended,  but it actually looked a lot like this!

Yes, I tried holding him upside down while I brushed. He thought it was fun to go upside down, until he saw the tooth brush heading his way.

Then, Mama Suerte took a deep breath (and a jar of peanut butter) and spent a good 45 minutes just reflecting on what hasn't work thus far in my parenting journey and why. Threats weren't working and they just aren't me. They aren't how I operate. We do goofy all day long so being goofy wasn't doing the teeth trick. Begging defeats the purpose. Even if it worksed, which it didn't, my goal was to teach him to brush his teeth and take care of his oral health as part of our successful bedtime routine. Then, I had the idea to try teaching him. He loves learning. He loves books that tell him facts and loves to recall these facts later. I decided to give it a try. I spent another twenty minutes researching his favorite topics.
The next morning (our more successful time--always a good time to introduce a kid to something new), I said "Oh buddy, as you brush today, I wanted to tell you something I learned about trucks!" I shared three facts about dump trucks slowly, as I brushed and re-brushed the surface of his teeth. That night? Concrete mixers. Again, a success. There's no fighting and no arguing. He just opens his mouth and lets me go to down. When he pulls away, I take out the brush and listen to what he wants to share, often something he knows about the topic, and then start again, overly excited to share the next fact.
So now, a few weeks later, I can tell you anything you want to know about fire trucks, dump trucks, bridges, New York City, his daddy, and firefighters. I'm researching new facts all the time.  Do you know that the driver of the biggest dump truck has to climb 14 steps to get in the driver's seat? I do. And so does Z-man.

Baby Shower by Mail

We have a new baby in the family! Welcome Baby! You are so loved already!

Before Newest Addition arrived, I knew I wanted to do something special for Mommy and Daddy-to-Be. There is so much to do to prepare for a baby and every bit helps. Plus, a new baby is a great reason to celebrate!

Why not just throw a baby shower? Well, they live in Missouri and they have family and friends throughout the US and in England. A traditional baby shower was kind of out of the question. I thought on this for a while and then decided to try throwing a baby shower by mail. 

I chose a ducky theme, because its super cute and because I remember feeling like I would never have all my ducks in a row when I was getting ready to have Z-man. I put together packets all decorated in ducks for twenty-five or so close female family and friends. Each packet included several activities with instructions to mail the completed parts back to me and to select a present and mail it directly to the Midwest.
The activities I included were:
-A card with wishes for Baby on it. I designed my own. Even though its not amazing design work, I'm proud of it and it included exactly the things I wanted it to. (Here is a downloadable version of it. It doesn't look so hot in the preview but looks normal once it is downloaded.)
-A card with advice for Mama-to-Be. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I ordered this one. 
-Either a onesie or a bib to decorate.
-Envelopes for each participant to write their address on for easy thank you note-sending. One clever mama of four sent her envelope back sans an address, marking it "Do not send me a thank you card. You already have enough to do!" How true!
I also included a little goody bag like an actual shower- a ducky keychain with tiny duck candies, tagged "Thank you!"
After I received the completed packets, I laminated the baby wishes and complied them into a book. The mama advice cards went on a key ring for easy referencing. I stamped the envelopes and slipped a thank you card under the flap. Each onesie or bib was pinned with a duck that said "Made with love by _______"

I put all the parts inside the biggest box I could find, filled the box with confetti, ribbons, and balloons, stuck duck stickers all over the outside and the inside of the box, and taped a pink ribbon for Mama to wear while she opened it all right inside the flap.

The balloons were pretty flat by the time it arrived, but Mom and Dad loved it. She even video taped it so we could be part of her "shower."  I loved being part of helping them prepare for Baby and having a first hand glimpse at how loved and supported they are-even from a distance.

The Best of Community Helpers

As I prepare for March, Weather Month in my classroom, I packed up my teaching props and books about Community Helpers and returned all the various trucks to Z-man's collection. Some days in our classroom were so fun, I just had to share. Here are some of my favorite activities about Community Helpers (aside from the one I already shared):

-Sanitation Workers: We read Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha (new favorite authors of Z-man's with their catchy versed-writing style and truck themes). The kids played with trash truck toys borrowed from my house, Lincoln Logs, and a mesh-style pencil holder that I picked up at the dollar bin. We filled sandwich bags with torn paper and knotted them to look like trash bags. I wish I had a good picture of this play, but all of my pictures have my students' faces in them. This was the "best of the best" according to 4 of ten students, a pretty high rating!

-Military: I incorporated a day about military last year when my brother joined the Marine Corps and now I can't imagine not including this. (Ooorah!) My kids painted our easel with green and brown paint, then rubbed paper over top of the paint to blend the colors and make a print. Camouflaged paintings! We cut ours to look like combat boots and laced them up with black string.

 

-Doctors: For doctors, we made a hospital like the fire house and they LOVED playing with toy ambulances and people figures in this hospital. We also made these health care collages that I found on Pinterest. As they made them, we talked about the tools that doctors used and discussed what they are used for. The students really enjoyed making these 3-D collages and becoming comfortable with some basic items that doctors use.

-Construction workers: We read Road Work by Sally Sutton and acted the book out with Z-man's trucks in this under the bed storage container filled with dirt. We added some water to make the dirt muddy and talked about the differences between dirt and mud.  

 

I also pre-cut shapes from foam to represent these cardboard blocks and worked one-on-one with the students to make building plans. Then, we worked together to follow the plans to construct the different structures. This was my favorite activity I have done thus far as a teacher. The learning opportunities were endless and they were so proud of their plans and their structures!