Thursday 7 November 2013

Remember, Remember...

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!