Today was a big day for Luca. He turned 5 in January and it was time to get his final set of shots until he turns 11. We got his flu spray back in October and this is how well that went: We walked in and I told the nurse he really doesn’t like shots, sprays, or to be messed with and that we should move slow and do this calmly. She shrugged off my warnings and said oh yeah we see it all the time. I tried to tell her … no not this this … no you haven’t.
He was calm until she suddenly just broke out the spray. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the hulk transform but that’s basically what happened. Luca stopped, looked up, time slowed, and he transformed.
He jumped onto a chair and flipped another. The nurse recoiled in shock. I thought “Yeah that’s what I was trying to tell you.” I picked him up and got a giant hulk kick to my nuts. If the nurse wasn’t there I probably would have instinctually dropped or thrown him but my first thought was how to I react as a somewhat reasonable parent. The nurse asked if we should keep going or if we should just call it off as she made her way to the door. In the end he got his spray and calmed down.
Ever since then Kitty and I have been dreading this day and planning for it. I took the day off and we all headed to the doctor. Luca took a few tests. They checked his hearing, eye sight, memory, and had him draw several shapes and a self portrait. The doctor asked if Luca had any questions and he said, “yes, what do my kidney’s look like?” After the discussion on how kidneys look and work it was time for the shots. Luca laid down, gave me a hug, and we turned on a show on Kitty’s phone. It took 10 seconds, hurt some, but Luca squeezed me and made it though. He said he was a little scared and that it hurt but that it wasn’t so bad.
Afterwards as promised we headed to a special lunch of his choosing, Sushi! Then we headed to Toys R Us for a special toy of his choosing. When we got there he said well I want to surprise Autumn and get her a toy too, so he picked one out for Autumn also. He and Autumn played Paw Patrol for the rest of the day.
Luca did a great job and we were very proud of how he acknowledged his fears, talked about them, and then worked through it. Just another day as the mild-mannered Luca.
