Early Angst

Nicholas is the only child I know who can become emotionally attached to his toothbrush.

It happens that, every once and awhile, I need to buy the boys new toothbrushes. When the old ones get so frayed I have a hard time finding the plastic in the tangle of bristles they chomp on.And my kids get excited when I let them choose new brushes. My only rules are 1 - no battery toothbrushes (they wear out just as fast, use batteries, and so are more environmentally harmful) and 2 - every child must have a different toothbrush. Nick and Nate may not have identical toothbrushes. For the same reason Steve and I may not have identical toothbrushes. Because then we will get confused. Actually, Steve and I still get confused because at some point one of us will make a Bugs Bunny like switch in our brains and forget which one of us had the red one, and we'll both claim it as our own, neither of us saying anything, but both of us using it for weeks until Steve walks in and freaks out because I am using his toothbrush.

But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about Nick.

See, Nick will get excited over his new toothbrush. But once he brings it home and I gather the old ones to throw away, he will start to whimper. He will cry. Yes, cry, because he just LOVES his old toothbrush. Getting a new one does not, apparently, replace the old one.

The past week Nick gave his new toothbrush to Nathan. "I'm just going to use my old one a bit longer," he told me. What followed was a week long saga where I purchased a third toothbrush for Nick - the most inexpensive kind that came in a 2-pack. Nick unwrapped that toothbrush and used it, causing Andy to have a tantrum until I gave in and let him use the second of the toothbrushes, despite his having a toothbrush he used only for a week. Nick rescued his old toothbrush from the trash. He used it, then hid it. I found it, and threw it in a secret trash receptacle.

I'm serious. The crying, the despair... over a toothbrush?