This year, since he’s now two, Giovanna decided she’d try
LHG at the annual fireworks in the village.
However, there was a big potential problem. Luca does not
like loud noises. Until recently hand dryers in public toilets have sent him
into a frenzy of tears and vacuum cleaners didn’t impress him much either. Even
now he will dolefully eye the objects with suspicion, his bottom lip sticking
out (he is past master at unhappy sticky-out lip!)
Neither did past family experience bode well. I remember a
time when his Uncle Jack, who he’s a lot like, wouldn't last more than thirty
seconds into the fireworks before he was hollering his head off and one of us had
to take him home. This went on until he was at least four or five. He hated
loud noises too.
With all this in mind, we set off to Bluewater on Tuesday
afternoon, searching for a pair of earmuffs, to, well, muffle the noise. You
would not believe how difficult it is to get earmuffs for boys. Giovanna examined
the items on offer, deciding that even a little two-year-old chappy couldn’t
pull off pink, sparkles, flowers or Hello Kitty. Having almost given up, good
old M&S finally came to our rescue with a pair of manly navy blue earmuffs,
which were actually in the boys’ section.
Overdressed for what was a mild evening (bonfire nights used
to be cold), we set off through the
woods down to the meadow. Trouble struck early on when Luca, tired of the pre-firework
fire jugglers and tired full stop, fought and hollered to go home. It looked
like it was going to be Uncle Jack all over again. Giovanna, resigned to
missing the spectacle, tramped wearily back through the woods to the
footpath, only to have LHG whinge that he wanted to go back to the fireworks.
All’s well that ends well, as they say, and once the
fireworks started, his mouth was open in awe for the whole show. With woolly hat
and earmuffs firmly in place, the noise didn’t bother him at all. Afterwards he declared
it, ‘Good’.
As Giovanna pointed out, he was much braver than Jack ever
was!
