Fluoride in the Potty

This past weekend, Brennan ventured into yet another interesting adventure of sorts. If you know my two boys, you know they're as different as can be. One is just like me, one is just like Randy. Brennan is our little wild man (you can guess which one he's like). He does things that Caleb has never even considered, usually leading to bizarre results. This weekend was one of those times.

Friday night Randy tried to convince both boys that Saturday was a school day. No matter how many mornings of the week we have to drag them out of bed to get to school on time, Saturday seems to send their bodies into a totally different dimension - and they pop out of bed with no help at all as the sun is rising. See Randy's blog for more info... So, this weekend, Randy thought if we could convince them that Saturday was a school day, surely they would sleep late. And we could sleep. Well, you have to take into account that Brennan is sick for the 4th time in 2008, so he woke up repeatedly through the night (which Randy missed due to his ability to sleep through anything.) So, 6:15am rolls around, and Brennan is awake, coughing his little head off. 7:00am rolls around and Caleb is awake, knowing it's not a school day, and raring to go!

Well, for some unknown reason, I got back in the bed, thinking they were busy reading in Caleb's room. I never go back to sleep when they're awake, but thought this morning I would just "rest my eyes" for a moment, as my mother always says. In my half awake-half asleep state, they sounded so sweet jibber-jabbering together. Every now and then Caleb would come ask me a random question, which I would sleepily answer "not now - when I get up" to, not sure what any of the questions really were.

All of a sudden, I awoke from my deep slumber, and realized I no longer heard the sweet sound of voices coming from Caleb's room, but I heard lots of banging around in the boys' bathroom. Hmmm... never a good sign. Then I realized Caleb was no longer upstairs. Another bad sign. So, I spring from the bed as if there is a fire to put out (because I know realistically there might be), and jolt to the bathroom. There stands little Brennan, on his stool, with the part of the miniature training potty that holds the peepee/poopoo stuff on the countertop, a bottle of kids' fluoride, and a big grin on his face. The potty is flowing with fluoride, and he's as happy as he can be with his little experiment.

I go into panic mode... because fluoride can be toxic in small children. So, Brennan (2 1/2 years old) and I enter into this conversation.

"Brennan, did you drink any of the fluoride?"

"No."

"Brennan, mommy really needs to know, did you drink any of the fluoride?"

"Yes."

More panic mode. Which do I believe? The No or the Yes???

Then he proceeds to show me how he's been using his hands to play in the fluoride in the little peepee container - with great joy I might add!

So, I run to the bedroom, showing Randy the fluoride bottle and asking him as he comes out of his coma-like state, "Do you know how much fluoride was in this bottle last night?!?!?!?!

He's not sure, but he doesn't think that it was much more than what is in there now.

I continue to get a mix of answers from Brennan as to what he's been doing with the fluoride other than dipping his hands in it, so I finally quit asking!!!

Fortunately, poison control was not needed, and Brennan is fine. The potty will not have any cavities any time soon, and Brennan's fingers are cavitiy-free as well. The fluoride bottle has a new home, far out of anyone's reach. We'll probably forget to use it now, and all of the boys' teeth will rot out! Oh, the dilemma...

In spite of my immediate "panic", I have to laugh about it now. Brennan doesn't see any dangers, just pleasure. He's not afraid of toxic fluoride poisoning, he's just enjoying putting some random things together and seeing what happens. No fear. I'm envious of Brennan's lack of fear. My life is often so driven by fear... but his isn't. While I want him to be cautious (and go overboard all of the time on that), I don't want his life to be plagued with fear. Life is about enjoying all that God has given us, not cowering in a corner because everything in front of us is unknown and scary.

So, today, I'm thinking about pouring some fluoride in the potty and playing for a little while. Maybe it will whiten my fingernails, and people will think I just got a french manicure or something! But, I'm not going to live in fear today! God pours his blessings out on me too much to cower in the corner...

...perfect love casts out fear... 1 John 4:18

You have His perfect love today... so go flush your fear down the potty...that's what I'm going to do!