Joseph in the Dentist Office

I had 3 kids with dentist appointments yesterday morning, so I had to bring my 2 youngest along. Anya was pretty good waiting for all three kids to get cavities filled, but Joseph, well...I will never take him again!

First, the receptionist gave us some crayons and coloring pages. Anya and Rachel sat down to color. Joseph, first tried to take the paper Rachel was coloring, even though he had his own paper to color on. When that failed, Joseph decided to color on Anya's paper. Anya of course did not like this. Eventually, I persuaded Joseph to color on his own piece of paper. That lasted about 5 seconds. Joseph didn't care to color on his paper, instead he went and tried to color on the window. He got a few marks which I was able to scrape off with my fingernail, before I grabbed him up. I held him and he fussed until I let him down. Then he went back to the window with a crayon. This happened about 3 times before I gathered up all of the crayons and gave them back to the receptionist.

Next, Joseph decided that the metal horizontal blinds were a good toy. He didn't just touch them. He grabbed them up and started pulling them out. Again, I picked him up, he fussed on me, got down, and went back to the naughty task at hand. About the fifth time, the receptionist pulled the blinds all the way up.

Third, Joseph seemed to be settling down some. He sat down and began looking at a magazine. This peace did not last long before I heard a rip. He ripped the front and back cover off before I could rescue the magazine. UGGHHH!!! He then kept trying to get more magazines to rip! Until Johnny's turn was over and I went in with Joseph in one arm to help Adam through his filling.

Fourth, Joseph was interested in what the dentist was doing to Adam and watched very closely. Then it was Rachel's turn. Rachel needed help keeping her legs still and her hands away from her face. Joseph had seen this already and was no longer interested. So I held Joseph under one arm while he squirmed and fussed, and then I held one of Rachel's hands while my arm stretched across her legs. Adam held Rachel's other hand. I think this took about a half an hour. I was so glad when it was all over!

Joseph will NOT come with me to the dentist or other long waiting places again!!! There are other ways, and in his case, I think finding a babysitter and having to sit other kids in turn will be easier.