While brushing Michael’s teeth last night, I became acutely aware of a foreign object in his mouth; one I think he’d been hoping I wouldn’t notice. I set the brush down and leaned in for a closer look, to see a wad of indiscernible foodstuff that had been masticated beyond all hope of recognition, enrobed in a minty froth.
“Spit that out!” I said, urgently. He complied. “For crying out loud, have you been chewing that all night long?” The answer was obvious. For whatever reason he was not able or willing to chew up and swallow whatever it was.
My brow furrowed in disbelief at his re-working a bite of food for hours on end.
And then the memory came back. A similar incident. Twelve years ago. While running a bedtime bath for sister L, who was not quite three at the time, I noticed she was still working on a bite of food from dinner. Frustrated, I demanded that she chew it up and swallow it. Her expression immediately changed to one of frantic determination as her wide-eyed gaze focused on a fixed point in the distance, her fists clenched and her jaws ground that bite at top speed. After a minute of this fruitless endeavor, I heaved a sigh of resignation and told her to just spit it out, which she happily did.
Returning to Michael’s tooth brushing, I smiled, having been gently reminded that Michael has a twin, and that it’s only a phase.
I went back and read the older twin post and that was fantastic. How fascinating that they are so similar. We are having twins and I hope neither of them is like their big brother. I love him like crazy, but 3 of him would drive me right to the nut house.
That’s great! Boy Weasel use to do this all the time. It always boggled my mind how he could hold dinner in his mouth for hours on end.
You guys need a dog to clean up spills and accept unchewables under the table!
It is so amazing how a like sister L and Michael are. Kinda freaky!!