I find it interesting, the times that my children decide to actually listen to me. Yesterday, I asked my son to “sit back and rest”. He did just what I asked, but he made a huge scene in the process!
So, we were sitting in the waiting room at my son’s Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. We have to go to that office, every week, for his speech therapy session. His appointment time is at 1:45 and the office is usually very quiet. The doctors and staff must take lunches around 1:00 because the place is always pretty empty. Today there was one other couple sitting in the waiting area. The couple looked to be in their late 60’s. The man had his mouth hanging open and was sound asleep, while his wife was reading magazines. I told the kids to go sit down while I waited for someone to show up behind the desk and check us in.
The kids ran over to a little sofa, which was exactly across from the couple. They kept getting up and switching seats and giggling. When I finished paying at the desk, I walked over and told the kids to calm down and not bother the other people in the waiting room. “Keep it quiet guys!” I said, but they just kept standing up and sitting back down. A few minutes later I said, “Come sit beside me! You must be tired from school! Just sit back and REST!”
My son jumps up beside me and starts to get comfy; he is actually starting to relax until he hears the man, who is sitting directly across from him, make a loud gasping snore. My son pops up and looks at the man and (on my sons face) I see an expression of sheer intrigue. My son leaned toward him, raised his eyebrows, and studied him in great detail. My little guy then gets in the exact same position as the older man. My child leans over on the arm of the sofa, puts his head back, crosses his ankles, opens his mouth and pretends to be sleeping. The sleeping man’s wife, looks over and sees my son open his eye when the man, once again, snores. My son then looked down and realigned himself so that he was in the correct position. My son was now the snoring man’s mirror image; his little sleeping double. The wife realizes what my son is doing. She looked back and forth, between her husband and my “sleeping” son, and she started to smirk. She looked slightly amused but went back right back to reading her article.
The room was very quiet. The only noise you heard was the man snoring, but then it would get quiet again. Moments later, the man snored, but instead of silence I heard “CAAAWW SHHHHHH, CAAAWW SHHHHHH”. I looked over at my son and he was now fake snoring. My son often does this and it sounds amazingly realistic. I guess from all the years of hearing his father snore, my boy has it down! He also does this in the car, when I tell him to close his eyes and rest. He lays his head back, closes his eyes, and starts the fake snore. I have heard him make this sound repeatedly, but I still have to look at him to verify that the incredibly loud, and eerily realistic, snore is coming out of my tiny little man. I have heard his “snore” multiple times, but it is still funny every time he does it!
Anyway, I tap my son’s leg and tell him to “Stop it”, but he will not budge. My daughter then grabs her stomach, saying, “Mommy it is so funny! He is snoring! Look at him! I can’t breathe!” I could feel the man’s wife looking at us. When I finally looked at her, she just looked surprised as she listened to my toddler’s very nasal, very growly, and very realistic snore. She then looked over at her sleeping, grumbling husband. Her husband had been letting out some strange nasally gasping snores, but you could tell that she was so used to it, that she no longer even noticed. Now my son was bringing it to her attention; well, to everybody’s attention. I watched the woman behind the desk stand and look for the other snoring culprit. She then left the desk and brought back a few other women.
It just kept getting worse! Now, my daughter was howling, the ladies at the check-in desk were laughing and waving for other women to come look, and I was closing my eyes trying not to laugh. My son’s snore was just getting louder and more similar to the old guy’s snore. My son would occasionally crack open an eye to make sure he was still copying the man’s position, determined to perfect his “sleeping man” imitation. Now, why he decided the needed to imitate this man is something that only a toddler could understand. So, the wife had just been sitting there and taking all of this in, when all of a sudden she burst out laughing. I mean tears were running down her face and she was rocking in her seat. She slapped her husband (to wake him up) and pointed to my child who was “sleeping” and snoring up a storm. Luckily, they had a good sense of humor about the whole thing because the entire office was now looking through the check-in window. The entire building was in awe of the snoring competition that was taking place in the lobby.
Our speech therapist opened the door (while laughing) and called us back. My son finally stopped his fake sleeping and said, “Mommy, I was tired, so I rested!” When we headed back for his appointment, we had to walk past the couple. The woman was still laughing and smiling when we left the lobby and it occurred to me that they were probably in the office to see if the gentleman had sleep apnea. I had a feeling that we just added “fuel to the fire”. I imagined his wife was saying, I told you your snoring was bad!
So, my son turned a fairly quiet office upside down but, those women obviously needed a good laugh. I am very relieved that the couple took it so well because, my son was just doing what I told him to do – I told him to sit back and rest! My son did as requested; he just put that toddler spin on it! This was one more time that my children made a scene! Who would have thought that the suggestion to “REST” could have backfired? Be careful what you ask for, huh!