Tung oh!

Adelle went to the clinic today to get her jab. The whole experience was rather interesting. No, not for her but the parents. I was put in charge of holding her down and Mommy had consoling duty. First course: two drops of some vaccine for polio. No resistance, no sweat.

Next course of action: the jab. The nurse readied the shot and I held Adelle as firmly as needed. The needle pierced the skin and sunk in. No resistance, nary even a whimper. I was just about to exclaim how brave and strong Adelle when, as the nurse withdrew the needle, she bawled…and boy, was it loud. She even managed to report the reason for crying: “Tung oh!” (painful in Chinese).

But, all was under control. Mommy adeptly took over, carried Adelle and heaped praise on her, which pacified her somewhat. Though she was still smarting from the jab by the time she got home, distraction by means of riding her still-new bicycle was good enough to make her forget the pain for a bit.



Notwithstanding the fact that none of us really likes needles, Adelle really did a splendid job of going through that rather painful process, don’t you think?