The other day Edie came home from school and asked if she could take a picture of my toothbrush.  Why for I asked.  “Isabelle and I are working on a short story about a family of toothbrushes and I’m in charge of the pictures.” Sure thing.

Why I imagined this picture to be a simple act of taking a picture of the toothbrushes in a cup,  I don’t know. 

I pointed out the light that time of day was better upstairs in our bathroom and she quite happily took off upstairs with her camera to our bathroom.

A few minutes later, she was back downstairs.  “Do you have food coloring?”  What do you need that for? “Well, in the story, the family is going on vacation and I want to fill up your tub and pretend it’s the pool, but I want the water to be really blue, so I need to use food coloring.”  No, you are not putting food coloring in my bathtub.  How about you use a big bowl and pretend that’s the pool?  Good idea.

Not sure why I didn’t go upstairs to oversee the goings on at that moment, but I didn’t. 

When I did go up a few minutes later, this was the scene I witnessed:

That would be her father’s toothbrush, face down in the blue dyed water.  And that would be her toothbrush, face down on the floor of my tub.  A tub that is admittedly, not exactly clean.

It was clean last week, and then we had a raging party Saturday night and we had a friend who decided that his 3 and 5 year old sons needed a bath, right there and then, and left one heck of a dirt ring that I haven’t had time to clean yet. 

What, you don’t have friends who decide in the middle of raging parties at your house that their kids need a bath in your tub?

At that point, I told her to please bring our toothbrushes downstairs with the bowl so I could soak them in something to disinfect them. Which she did. 

I then walked past her as she was photoshopping her photos she had uploaded and I couldn’t help but notice this:

That would be the entire family of toothbrushes on the floor of my less than clean tub. 

At this juncture I would like to point out that our tub has one of those built-in nonslip bottoms that over the years has taken on a shade a little less than white anyway.  The only way it appears dazzling white  is to pour bleach on it.  And let it soak.  So, I’ve learned to live with a slightly off-white tub bottom, since I don’t always use bleach when I scrub out the tub.  So what you see is for the most part how it usually looks.  Thankfully the big nasty dirt ring wasn’t in the photos.  But the knowledge that not only was my tub bottom photographed, but then photoshopped and printed out and taken to school is slightly unsettling, to say the least.  I wish I could say that she photoshopped the background until it was sparkling white, but alas, that would have taken away from ‘beach’ look she was going for apparently.

I soaked the toothbrushes in vinegar.  I chose to tell her father about the adventure his toothbrush took by just showing him the photos she’d printed out.   We are still laughing about it and we are quite proud of how creative she is.  We just ask that she not put our toothbrushes in any more compromising positions.  We don’t feel this is too much to ask or that we are being too stifling.  Thankfully, she agrees.

And it wouldn’t hurt me to ask what her intentions are next time she asks to use my toothbrush either.