The doctor will see you now...

Words that we all want to hear within minutes of entering the waiting room.

This past week found us with two sick boys. First Rhys, then Emerson. This meant two trips to the doctor's office.

Taking Rhys was pretty simple. Emerson was in school so I only had one kid to juggle. Rhys was feeling so terrible that the only thing he wanted to do was sit on my lap and snuggle. He doesn't like going to the doctor anyways and usually sits in my lap and fights the doctor and nurses off. So, waiting our turn in the waiting room was pretty easy.

You would never guess that he was sick in this picture.

Emerson on the other hand, is never simple. I am pretty sure that kid could be puking and still bouncing off the walls. He is hard to keep down.

This leads me to our trip to the doctor for Emerson. We went on Monday and I had both boys home that day. We got an early appointment hoping that the waiting room wouldn't be full of patients. On the short ride to the office, I told the boys that when we got there they needed to sit on the chairs and wait for Emerson to be called back.

We walked into an office full of people, mostly because a family with four kids and another with three were taking up half the waiting room. They were all sitting quietly in the seats reading books and whispering to each other. That was when I got a little nervous.

So, I checked Emerson in and I got handed a clip board with a form to fill out. I wanted to throw it right back and say something along the lines of, "Can't you see I have two little boys with me? Filling out paper work isn't going to happen." I didn't, I dropped the boys hands, grabbed the clip board and pen, and smiled. That is when, I believe all control was lost.

The boys walked with me to where I wanted all of us to sit and immediately started bouncing from seat to seat, running around and finding their favorite hiding spot. There are two couches that sit back to back with enough room in between them that my boys believe is a fort that they can hide in. I would let them stay there if I knew everyone in the office was ok with it because they are not hurting anything but pretty sure it's not acceptable.

I got them to stop hiding in the fort and to stay by me but then Emerson decided to crawl underneath the end table in the corner. Great! So, I asked him why he wanted to be under the table, his answer, "I just want to play."

"Well, this in not the place to play and I need to you get up and sit on the chair and wait for the nurse to come call you back and this isn't acceptable behavior and all these people in here don't want to hear me talking gently to you for behaving poorly over and over again." As I am saying these things, wanting to scream my head off, Rhys is peering over the arm of the couch at us. He is laughing at us and making Emerson laugh, which makes my head want to pop off.

Then Rhys starts patting my head and repeating what I am saying to Emerson and in a super quick second he grabs a handful of my hair that is pulled back in a pony tail and starts singing, "I got your hair."

That moment, that moment right there, was when I smiled, because I knew how ugly, unruly and out of control it looked. I kept from laughing but all I could see was a picture in my mind of how we looked, which is exactly what motherhood looks like, a hot mess at times.

I got Rhys to let go and Emerson out from under the end table and shuffled them across the hall to the bathroom to compose ourselves and when we walked back into the office it was a little better. Finally, after those few minutes that felt like an hour I got both of them to sit down and then we were called back.

I kid you not, while in the exam room they both sat perfectly in their chairs and did exactly what they were told to do. Then they calmly walked out of the office holding my hands.

As I melted into the drivers seat, thinking about how that could have possible gone better. I came up with the idea that the doctors office should have pagers like restaurants. That way you can take your kids back to your car or walk around with them while waiting.

We have many great outings with our boys but the few that are just like this make it hard. I am thankful that we keep trying because we both know that we are raising strong, independent, productive men of our society.