Sunday, May 23, 2010

Who Were Those Kids?

So my boys are like most 3 and 4 year old boys. Full of life, energy and very rarely caught sitting still. As an example, M greeted everyone in my parents house by hopping to them and then giving them very fast hugs. He continued to jump up and down for about five minutes before he fell into the TV and almost found his way into a timeout. That is normal behavior.

Last night I wanted to visit an 8-year-old friend in the hospital. She had been admitted over the weekend and diagnosed with diabetes. As we were preparing to leave for the hospital, I could tell the boys were tired and on the verge of meltdowns. They had timeouts just trying to get toys picked up and put away. I wasn't sure how it would be in a small hospital room with no toys and nothing "fun" to do.

When we got to the hospital, I explained to the boys that there are a lot of very sick kids and their families there. I told them it was very important that they be quiet and stay right by me so that they don't disturb anyone. I also explained that hospitals are full of buttons and big hallways but it is important not to touch any buttons or run in the hallways. They each had questions about whether or not they have ever been to a hospital before (Jacob has, M hasn't). They then had a conversation with eachother about how sick you would have to be to go to the hospital and debated with each other about if the day trips to the surgery center or OR count.

The boys were awesome. No one ran and they were both quiet. I thought we would be lucky to be able to stay for 5 minutes. We were there for over 30 minutes. The kids were so quiet the nurses didn't even know we were there. I am hoping our friend will be going home today or tomorrow but the kids are hoping she stays "for two more weeks" so they can visit again. Sorry kids. She's stable now and going home soon.

2 comments:

WICarrie said...

Wow; very impressive! Some of that good parenting kicked in to override those natural impulses! Big hallways AND buttons?

Angela :-) said...

Wasn't M born in a hospital?

Angela :-)