And that's a wrap...

December was a holly-jolly, sugar-loaded, carb-filled, dashing-all-over-the-place blur. Too much food; too many trips to the madhouse mall; a never-ending wish list for Santa from a certain junior member of the household; a cat with a newly-developed penchant for nibbling the branches of a fake Christmas tree – and then rewarding us in the wee hours with alarming retching sounds... You get the picture. But lots of fun all the same, and still my favorite time of year!

Now, all of a sudden, here we are on January 2nd, 2012, and I'm still trying to figure out where to put Pudding Pie's vast stash from Santa and how to quietly get rid of the last of the Christmas cookies and candy, so that my goal for a new year of health and fitness has at least a slim chance.

In spite of the excesses, we weren't completely terrible this festive season. You see, while our family indulged in way too much sugar this past month, we did go on a fab trip to Seaworld and, if you read my last post, you'll know what this means – we successfully completed our two-week Oral Care Challenge!

We did it!

Successful completion of the challenge meant that Pudding Pie, hubby, and myself had to brush, floss, and rinse every day, twice a day, for two weeks. It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't glitch-free; but we did it, and we are so proud!

Actually, it was a wake-up call. Having to log our daily brushing, flossing, and rinsing activity made me see how often we allow 'rush jobs' or skip altogether the brushing and flossing parts because we're 'out of time', or more commonly, because we don't want to deal with a rather recalcitrant Pudding Pie.

For this challenge though, the rather recalcitrant Pudding Pie rose to the occasion quite magnificently. I am always amazed at the power of a chart. Once we'd taped up our daily progress chart for the challenge, she was all business. Of course it also helped having a bunch of new dental hygiene products to try out! Post-challenge, she has become a far better flosser (She loves the cool Reach flossing products we used!) and brusher, but she is still a very reluctant rinser. She is just not a fan of mouthwash, no matter who is on the label – even Barbie couldn't sway her. We came to a compromise by allowing her to rinse with just a teeny amount of the mouthwash. At least this way, she's rinsing, and I figure we're still laying the foundation for good dental habits.

Pudding Pie isn't the only one who has made progress. I've become a better rinser and this is because I've been using the Listerine Total care Zero mouthwash – zero alcohol – so great! I can't bear the taste of alcohol in mouthwash, unlike hubby who savors the way it makes his mouth feel and always opts for Listerine Antiseptic in the Cool Mint flavor.

When we began this oral care exercise, I wondered how we'd fare during the challenge and afterwards. I'm so proud of how we stuck with the challenge and I'm happy to report that our two weeks of concentrated effort are paying off long-term, too. The other evening, I told Pudding Pie to pick out her pjs and get ready for bed. She did. (Amazing.) Then, she headed for the bathroom, squeezed toothpaste onto her Barbie toothbrush and began brushing. (Stupendously amazing.) Pudding Pie is moving on from the notion that dental hygiene is optional, and this is a very good thing.


Pudding Pie Sums It All Up.


I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Listerine and received a sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.