Breakfast, Bananas and Brushing Teeth

Favorite morning rituals include cereal with milk in a big girl cup, a banana (still with the peel since that's how Daddy eats his) and brushing teeth.

You are obsessed with brushing your teeth. You love to do this. I think you just like the tasty paste that comes with toddler toothbrushes. To get you to finish brushing you teeth, we rinse (you really just play in the running water) and then place the toothbrush back into its "home" and then we wave goodbye to the toothbrush. By having this ritual, we have avoided many meltdowns.

In fact, most of the time we have avoided a spaz situation by waving goodbye to inanimate objects. Wave goodbye to the slide, the pool, the swing, the bag of cookies. Waving goodbye works like a charm with you. Sometimes it seems silly to do, but I could careless what others think as we wave like maniacs at the candy stand in the grocery checkout. You are generally very well behaved in public spaces and any tricks to keep it that way are valued.

One morning, I was too tired to do this wave goodbye ritual with you and just "forced" you to leave the house. The screaming ensued for the entire walk to the car, the drive to Ms. Patti's, and the walk up to Ms. Patti's door. You didn't stop screaming until we were inside and ready for the next ritual of shoes and hands (taking off shoes and sanitizing hands). I learned my lesson. I take the extra time to let you process and officially "close" a situation before moving onto the next. Closure is important to all of us and I promise to always let you take time to wave goodbye.