Brave Al-bug

Today Alby had his MMR jabs.  Three separate injections, one in each arm and another in the leg.  Poor little man, he had been having so much fun running around the waiting room, waving to everyone who came through the door and then met a lovely nurse who lulled him into a false sense of security with a great pop up game and the next thing he knows – bam, bam, bam.

The nurse really was great.  She got him fully engrossed with the toy – it wasn’t just a case of “here’s a toy, amuse yourself” which is how I usually do things with Alby.  It was about learning through play and interacting through play. I’m sure she’s done it a million times before and will do it a million times over again but it seemed so natural and Alby was totally taken by everything she was doing.  I’ve seen the same watching Alby interact with my mum and Mark’s mum – they are natural teachers.

I went to China and taught for my Gap year and I remember thinking then that whilst I would survive the six months and even enjoy it, teaching wasn’t something I found easy or intuitive. I find it the same these days.  I’ve decided not to beat myself up too much about this at the moment though.  If my attitude when Mark is back full time is still focused on “here’s a toy – entertain yourself whilst I do something else” then I’ll give myself a talking to, but for the moment I’ll live with it.  Thankfully Alby’s grandparents are a big enough presence in his life to keep him learning.  Anyhoo, I digress…

Alby was brilliant – a few tears but minimal squirming which meant we got all jabs done in quick succession.  The tears didn’t last for long (helped by their being a mirror in the room we could distract him with) and then smiles and waves as we walked back to the car hand in hand.

With any luck Alby should be jab free until 2015 now.  Hopefully by then he will understand what he is walking into and will be susceptible to bribery if the pop up toy has lost it’s charm!