Daddy monkey!

If you’re a mom, you’d know how hard it is to brush the teeth of a toddler. Ang hirap talaga especially when you’re just starting. Then I read somewhere that you can tell your kid that you’re brushing animals out of their teeth. The silliness of what you’re saying would make them more amenable daw.

It worked for me, not because Jia found it silly, but she found it yucky to have goats and cows and lions and snakes and dogs and tigers inside her mouth. Hahaha! To make it more educational, I would mimic the sound of the animal while brushing her. So it would go like this:

Me: Jia! There’s a goat in your mouth. We have to get it out!

Jia: Huh? (then would open her mouth)

Me: Look! There’s the goat! What sound does the goat make? Meeee-meeee-meeeee!

And this went on for weeks.  Minsan dog, minsan cat, minsan lion. Okay naman. So far, so good.

One day, I used monkey. Jia’s only concept of a monkey came from this animal poster in our house:

While I was “getting the monkey out of her mouth”, Jia said “Mommy monkey! Baby monkey!”  Natuwa naman ako! Naalala niya yung poster so I made different “voices” for the mommy and the baby.

After a few days, Jia asked for the sound of the “Daddy monkey!” Eh di lalo akong natuwa! Jia grasped the concept of a family of monkeys! So I did a deep monkey sound. Daddy daw eh. Happy naman siya.

After a few days, Jia said for “Mama monkey! Papa monkey! Lolo Ben monkey! Tito JP monkey! Tito Dindon monkey! Tita Cha monkey! Baby Miggy monkey! Ate Hazel monkey! Ate Jovy monkey!” And unless I make a unique sound for each person, she would not open her mouth! At paulit ulit kami sa lahat ng kakilala niya! Pati “Teacher Alta monkey!” Haaaay! LOL!

Ngayon, hindi na ako makaalis sa monkey. Start pa lang ng pag-toothbrush, she’ll yell na “Daddy monkey!”

* Mama is her lola
** Papa is her lolo
*** Lolo Ben is her lolo
******** etc.  Si Ate Hazel is the yaya of Baby Miggy. Ate Jovy is the househelp of Mama and Papa.