Vanity seems to be a good motivator

Lose has been rebelling against the whole brush-your-teeth-daily thing. What is WITH this girl?! It makes me crazy.

We have this super-fun/annoying ritual every single day.

I ask her, "Lose? Did you brush your teeth?", to which she replies EVERY time,

"Yes".

And I know that every time she says it, she's totally fibbing. I then ask her,

"Really? Let me smell your breath...", to which she reluctantly turns straight around back to the bathroom to finally brush her teeth.

I've been trying to figure out how to get her to brush her teeth. I recently heard Naki's voice in my head, reminding me that the only way we got her to stop sucking her thumb was by using her vanity. Naki looked up pictures on the internet when she turned 4 of people's teeth who never stopped sucking their thumb...really REALLY extreme scenarios. He had her look at those pictures and then told her that if she didn't stop sucking her thumb, that is exactly where her teeth were headed. Yup...she's never ONCE stuck that thumb back in there. She quit cold turkey that very day. I decided to follow his voice in my head and looked up pictures this morning of people with tooth decay from horrible dental hygiene. They were AWFUL! I called her over to the computer this morning after our lovely daily "let-me-smell-your-breath" routine and told her to take a good look at what her teeth were destined to look like. Ginny and I couldn't stop laughing as she solemnly and immediately turned straight for the bathroom. Not only did she brush, she dutifully flipped over the 2 minute toothbrushing timer the dentist gave us and brushed the entire time.

Obviously, it's only been one morning. But I have a strong feeling we'll never have to discuss this matter again. Who said vanity is a bad thing?