Growing Up Hartman: nora | trip to the dentist

Nora was due for a dentist visit as a big T H R E E year old. She has been going every 6 months since she was a year old (given her previous thumb sucking status). She has never loved the dentist, but its never been a negative experience. However, as a big T H R E E year old, things that were never challenges are now brought to the battle field.

Enter the D E N T I S T visit. I tried to get Nora excited about the dentist via story books, dentist episodes of her favorite shows, talking about the dentist, the prizes she would get, etc...

Regardless of how hard I tried, the dentist was going to be what this independent, fiesty little three year old was going to make of it. Nora wanted NOTHING to do with it. After lots of sad faces, tears...and SCREAMING. Nora won. The hygienist didn't want to scare the other children. Here are some pictures of the experience. I am SO hoping 6 months will make the dentist drama fade and a happy experience on the horizon...

This isn't so bad...