My Tough Kid

Every now and then, amongst the chaotic days of picky eating, tantrums and non-stop moving, emerges a day when Toby shows us that he really is one tough kid.  Such a day occurred last week when we took him to my office for his 15-month shots.   (Don’t do the math.  Please.)

 

For those of you who DID the math, we were a tad on the late side so instead of waiting for an appointment we just decided to take him into my office and have Mel (our nurse) do the shots. 

 

As always, I was nervous.  I don’t know WHY seeing it’s my JOB to give kids shots. But watching Toby get his makes me feel nauseous.  So we have developed a great system.  Rob takes him to the appointment, goes in with him, holds him for his shots and then I come in at the last minute and give him an it’s-all-better-hug. Works perfectly.  The kid loves me.

 

So this time I was sitting at my desk pretending to do paperwork just WAITING for the wailing to start (which is my cue to come in with the it’s-all-better-hug) when I heard some clapping and some laughing from the room and then Mel came out --smiling.  And then Toby and Rob came out—SMILING.

 

Apparently, my tough kid had sat there quietly throughout the entire thing.  He WATCHED Mel as she plunged the first needle into his little arm and then, without batting an eye, watched again as the second needle went in.  In fact my motherly it’s-all-better-hug was REJECTED by my tough kid as he huffed and puffed to me that he had SOMETHING to SHOW me.  Very calmly, with his non-immunized arm he pointed to his now-band-aid covered injected arm; SOMEONE had put BANDAIDS on it.  The nerve.  He was NOT impressed.

 

After apologizing to him for agreeing to let someone plaster him in band-aids and telling him that he was indeed a very brave boy, I convinced him that an it’s-all-better-hug was still a good idea.  And it DID make me feel better.

 

After they’d left I turned to Mel (who, for the past few months, has endured my daily lamentations about the constant uncooperativeness of my son) and shrugged my shoulders.  Mel responded with a pat on the back, “They always make a liar out of us.”