This morning, Kaia barely ate any breakfast. She got mad any time I tried to take her pacifier from her. She had about three spoonfuls of yogurt, a couple bites of muffin and oatmeal strips, three bites of beet. She completely ignored her carrots and even her mushrooms. When she refused her beets and mushrooms, that is when I knew for sure that she was teething. I ended up dumping all her food she didn’t touch into a container and saved it for dinner in the fridge. When I gave her her toothbrush with a little toothpaste smeared on it, and she threw the brush onto the floor, smearing toothpaste everywhere, that’s when I knew I had to get a little aggressive with her. I changed her into her clothes for the day, then pinned her arms under my legs and brushed her teeth. She screamed and cried endlessly, but I really was not having it this morning. She already barely ate anything and kept getting mad when the pacifier got removed, and now she was refusing to brush. Sometimes, things just need to get done! So I explained to her that I didn’t want to upset her, but she had to get her teeth brushed and get to school.

This was a quick preview into my very-near-future life as a mother of a growing toddler. There will likely be many mornings far worse than this one, but at least I am tough enough to just power through it.