Brush-a, Brush-a, Brush-a

I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. I love being a dad.
One of the things I love most about it is watching by sons learn new stuff. I love the thrill of helping them learn how to do a bunch of manly stuff: fix cars, do yardwork, etc. One of those manly things that I’ve been working on recently is trying to teach Gavin ( 3 years old) how to spit. Yes. That’s right. I’m teaching him how to spit. While this may not seem like an important skill to you, I can attest that it is. If you didn’t know how to spit, how would you eat watermelons (the seeded kind)? How would you eat sunflower seeds? And most importantly, if you didn’t know how to spit, how would you brush your teeth? That’s what we’re working on right now. How to properly brush his teeth.
When you’re brushing a toddler’s teeth, there’s special kid toothpaste that can be swallowed without causing any sickness or trauma. Unfortunately “big boy” toothpaste is a little more powerful and shouldn’t be swallowed. So as a parent, it’s your job to help you child properly brush their teeth and spit out the toothpaste. A few nights ago I experimented with Gavin and “big boy” toothpaste for the first time. The toothpaste he’d been using was tasty but didn’t have any of the tingle or burn that adult toothpastes do. So I thought I’d go ahead and see if he could handle something without a cartoon character on it.
I brushed his teeth with just a little of it, because he said he didn’t want to spit right then. After I was done, I did my best to look excited and said:
“So, what’d you think of the big boy toothpaste? Did you like it?”
He looked me right in the eye and said:
“Big boy toothpaste makes me want to cry.”

I took that as a “no.”