It all started with a tube of toothpaste

Before I was a mom, even before I got pregnant, I had an exhaustive list of things that I said I would never, ever do as a mother. I should share that list sometime just so we can all have a good laugh. One of those things was that I would NEVER give my baby the POISON that was formula. That's supposed to be sarcastic, if you can't tell. We all know how that turned out.

What I'm saying is that I was a self-righteous fool and I've learned to never say never. God will usually snap those opportunities up and use them to humble me something fierce. And those humbling seasons, although helpful and refining, aren't the most fun.

In case you're wondering, what I'm about to share with you is not one of those humbling seasons, but rather a humbling moment. I am going to stop rambling and get to the point.

Before I was pregnant, during my pregnancy, and even after Griffin was born, I was adamant that I would never allow him to wear any clothing with characters. I'm talking Winnie the Pooh, Disney animals, Mickey, etc. I don't know why I got this in my head, but I did and I was sticking to my guns, dang it. It was a pride issue. I have lots of those, apparently.

One day, the time came for me to buy Griffin a toothbrush and toothpaste. I bought the baby kind at Target that came with a tiny toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste that had Elmo on the front. It sits in a little basket on Griffin's dresser.

Shortly after buying the teeth accessories, Griffin decided that he hated having his diaper changed. In order to avoid having a WWE sized wrestling match during every change, I would ask him, "Do you want to hold Elmo?" which was my peace offering of his toothbrush and toothpaste. It always pacified him long enough to do a quick change that didn't end with me sweating like a man.

One day, he randomly started crying for EMMO, EMMO. It took me awhile to realize that he was crying for the furry red monster on his toothpaste. It took me awhile to figure it out because he had never seen anything with Elmo on TV. I wish my child was crying because he wanted his teeth to be clean all the time, but he was just crying for Elmo, not his actual toothpaste. I could've had a future dentist on my hands!

Toothpaste Elmo became an obsession. He wanted his toothpaste (and toothbrush) ALL THE TIME. We would be in stores and he would find every tiny thing with Elmo on it and cry for it until I let him hold it. Once, he carried a box of frozen waffles with Elmo's picture on it around Kroger because he would scream when I took it away. That box of waffles came home with us.

I stuck to my guns and although he still loved Elmo, I wouldn't buy him any clothes with Elmo. Then one day, I pulled down some hand-me-downs from a friend's little boy. Lo and behold, there was a pair of Elmo pajamas in the bin. I showed them to G and he actually squealed. He hugged and kissed them-- jammies! It was so sweet.

Then I realized something. I was letting my pride get in the way of something that brought my child joy. It wasn't something that would hurt him or affect him negatively. He loves Elmo and Elmo is a pretty sweet little monster. I felt pretty ashamed when I realized what I'd been doing. I washed those jammies and he wore them that night. When we put the shirt on him, his face just lit up and he rubbed his belly saying, "Emmo! Emmo!"

Since then, we've added some more Elmo things to our collection of toys. We've rented some Elmo DVD's from the library and they've given this momma a few minutes of peace. I've gotten over my Elmo road block for the most part. He outgrew the jammies a few weeks ago, but we've been able to get by with our books and toothpaste since then.

That is, until yesterday. We were at the store and he started yelling for EMMO, EMMO. I saw what he was looking at and I couldn't resist...

Never say never, my friends. Unless it comes to Sponge Bob. Then I can actually say never. I despise that disrespectful little sponge.

And yes... that is the toothpaste and toothbrush that started it all. God bless dental hygiene and Elmo.