Pack Your Hat and Toothbrush

I've always enjoyed how young children get (healthy) obsessions with things. The repetition is an important method of learning for them.

Usually it's a particular toy to which they're attached (and can't leave the house without), or a type of food that they'll eat (usually to the exclusion of everything else), or television show (or even a single episode of a particular show) that they want to watch over and over and over again.

Of course, these "favorites" change (seemingly at random) over time.

The first two things above are usually pretty manageable. The tv show thing, however, is much more likely to draw ire from parents. (Big Brother recently made a comment about turtles while we were riding in an elevator, and I (accidentally) got the theme song from Franklin stuck in the head of a poor, unsuspecting mother (and now my mine and probably yours, too--"Hey, it's Franklin...")

Still, I chuckle a little when I overhear parents say "If I have to watch one more episode of (noun), I'll (verb)."

I'll leave the Mad Libs to you to fill in.

Anywho, Little Brother is currently in the midst of an obsessive phase about two such random things. (When he was that age, Big Brother was obsessed about his yellow blankie that Mom-E crocheted for him, and the phrase "dere's a guck (truck)" whenever he saw something with wheels.)

1. Hats. All of a sudden, Little Brother wants to wear baseball caps all the time. And usually not the same one for more than a few minutes. And almost exclusively ones that are not sized for his head.

He will practically drag me into my closet, where he has discovered the treasure trove of hats on the rack hanging on the inside of the door. We can't leave without taking at least 2 or 3 with us (and dumping the remainder of them on the floor). Then it becomes a fun guessing game about which of the 3 hats he wants to wear at that moment.

It's too funny to be frustrating, and he looks so darn cute with a hat too big for his head that falls over his eyes, which makes for a good game of peak-a-boo.
(Psst. I know it's you, Little Brother. I can tell because I'm holding you.)

When he gets tired of my hats, he then makes a bee-line for Big Brother's Lightning McQueen hat, which provokes a varying degree of tension.

It almost goes without saying that he never misses the opportunity to say "hat" when he spots one on somebody else in public.

When Mom-E was home with the boys on Monday, Little Brother had one had or another on pretty much all day, including during diaper changes. When I put him to bed last night, he wanted a hat in his crib. (Who needs stuffed animals, anyway?)

2. His Toothbrush. There's an episode of the tv show Monk where Mr. Monk (who is an OCD detective, for those of you who haven't seen the show) reveals that he flosses his teeth every 90 minutes.

If given unrestricted access to the bathroom, Little Brother would want to brush his own teeth AT LEAST that frequently.

Even passing the door to the bathroom causes him to exclaim, "Teeth! Teeth!" And if you take his toothbrush away from him before bed, he protests. LOUDLY. He'd definitely go to bed the with toothbrush if we let him.

The funny thing is that the most likely explanation is that he's teething, but if you give him a teething ring he promptly throws it on the floor. There must be something about those soft bristles.

Whatever makes you comfy, I guess. I'm not going to obsess about it.

As always, I'd love to hear about interesting things your kids have been (or are currently) focused on.

Happy "over-the-hump" day. See you on Fatherhood Friday!

Cheers,
Busy-Dad-E