Toothpaste, 3yr olds & a cat

Well, the cat has a nice coat of toothpaste on it. It’s on the left side. Which I find interesting.

Why only on the left? Well, it was Paedon who decided that the cat's appearance would be vastly improved by toothpaste. But it was plain toothpaste. Had it been me, I think I would have perhaps chosen the new red toothpaste with the cute little pinkish sort of crystals in it. Or she could have chosen the Shrek toothpaste, it is green and is reportedly supposed to taste like chocolate, which may be why she chose not to use that one, maybe she likes the chocolate tasting toothpaste and didn't want to waste it.

She didn't use the stripey sort of toothpaste either. Just the plain old white toothpaste, which is even odder, because that particular toothpaste is only resident in my shower, and it is contained in a little sort of plastic thingy which is affixed to my shiny fiberglass shower wall with little plastic cuppy suctiony things. And, here is the thing, it is affixed to the wall way to high for Paedon to reach. Not to mention that if she was to have used this particular tube of tooth cleansing product, it would have necessitated much thought before hand. Premeditation as it were.

Paedon is three years old.

Now I have watched this child since the second she was brought wailing, (actually, I was there at the birth, and she, in fact, was very much not wailing when she was born. She was rather quiet, contemplative and looked around) into this world. I have watched the development of her brain. I have watched her learn to walk, talk, think, construct sentences which are complex and original.

I, however, do not understand her predilection for wanting to apply food products to various parts of her, or other bodies.

Do not ever give this child yogurt unattended. She will spread it, quite calmly and determinedly over any exposed part of her body. Should you make the mistake of giving her yogurt for breakfast, you will shortly need to bath the child, the t.v., the sofa she was sitting on and any other close by object/life form.

Icing is good too. Don’t ever leave a birthday cake unattended in her presence. She doesn’t however, like to spread applesauce on her body parts. Maybe it is the consistency? Nothing at all chunky. If I would go out and buy baby food applesauce, which is a good bit creamier than regular applesauce, and leave it out for her to eat/spread, then I could see.

I don’t feel like cleaning up that though you see. So I will not find out.

The cat doesn’t seem to mind the toothpaste. It has been three days. I thought that the dog would be accommodating and clean it off, but apparently plain colored toothpaste is not to the dog’s liking. I find that a bit strange. The dog has a real liking for crayons of various colors (he doesn’t however, like black crayons), he eats at will from the litter box, and will clean up just about anything at all. So why not toothpaste? He regularly grooms the cat, although I do have to constantly say, “dog, get the cat’s head out of your mouth”. But since the toothpaste episode, he has consistently refused to groom that cat.

I have caught him grooming the other two cats.

My dog doesn’t like toothpaste. My youngest granddaughter doesn’t like toothpaste either. Empirical evidence that. I think. I am not exactly sure what empirical evidence is anymore. I used to know. But now I am fifty, and that was a very long time ago.

I think I lost most of that knowledge sometime during the decade of the seventies. I don’t have the prejudice against toothpaste though, so I don’t think it is hereditary, for either the granddaughter or the dog.

Now, I am waiting, biding time, counting the days, hours, minutes, to see just exactly how long it takes toothpaste to disintegrate off of an organic life form. The cat doesn’t seem to like toothpaste either, as I haven’t noticed the cat grooming itself. Herself, whatever, in those particular spots. She grooms herself really well on all the parts not covered in toothpaste, but leaves the bits with toothpaste on them totally and completely ungroomed, alone, as it were.

The ratio, then, of life forms in my household who have a prejudice against plain white minty flavored toothpaste is um...3:11 against. I wonder if that is a ratio that carries through into the society as a whole. Maybe the toothpaste manufacturers would be interested. Then again, probably not.