AUGUST 2005
So much for not letting Callum hurt his head for a while. I had gone shopping to Costco in Leeds, and decided to have Callum’s passport picture done. While I was waiting for it to be processed, Callum dropped to the floor and got the biggest bump on his head to date. The woman at the processing desk was on hand straightaway with some ice to try to calm the swelling. I held it on for at least ten minutes, and it was still really swollen. I feared it was going to be another trip to Casualty, but I just kept a close eye on him for a few hours and he was fine. He no longer looked like his passport picture though!
Callum and Lucy continue to be the best of friends. The initial passion has started to calm down a little, with each taking turns in playing hard to get. They do still hug and kiss occasionally though. It’s lovely to hear Lucy shouting Callum. You can see her grandparents gate from our back yard… she often stands at the gate shouting ‘hiya baby!’. She really is such a good talker, with the sweetest little voice. She keeps me amused for hours listening to her.
We took Callum to the clinic earlier in the month, he now weighs 24lbs 7ozs – although I suspect it was less than that by the end of the month as Callum had a few weeks of not eating too well. However, this was quite probably down to the fact he was teething as his top two canines have put in an appearance recently. His height was a little more difficult to measure… he really didn’t want to co-operate! All I can say is that it was somewhere around the 85cm mark (2’ 9½” in real speak!).
We were really looking forward to our holiday this year. We had booked a cottage in Plwmp which is in West Wales, towards the bottom of the Cardigan Coast. It all sounded so perfect for young children, with baby gates, a baby monitor, night lights, toys etc. but it could accommodate more than just is. It seemed a shame to have bedrooms stood empty, so we invited my Mum & Dad and my Brother and his son (Luke) to come along with us.
The drive down wasn’t as bad as we had imagined. We worried that Callum may become bored and restless on such a long trip. However, Luke swapped over into our car part way down, so he kept Callum entertained. That made our journey much easier.
When we arrived at the cottage, it was everything we expected and more. Annis and David had gone to extra lengths to accommodate us all (thanks again!). I was particularly surprised to see a ‘real’ cot in the bedroom – usually it’s a travel cot (not that here is anything wrong with that).
The cottage and the scenery around it was beautiful. There were beautiful gardens with a stream running through – just how I pictured the gardens of my dream home when I was a child. The place was spotlessly clean, and everything you could imagine was to hand… information on things to do and see, manuals for all the appliances, even spare bulbs and spare batteries for the TV remote control. There was nothing that hadn’t been thought of.
Callum and Luke settled straight in. Callum headed for the playing field (yes, it had its own fenced off playing field!), Luke went straight to the upstairs bedroom where he found plenty of Lego to keep himself amused all holiday.
We had travelled down on the Saturday, and decided to say around the cottage on Sunday so that the kids could run around and play – after all, they had been couped up in the cars a lot the day before. We also spent Sunday celebrating our Andrew’s birthday. It had actually been earlier in the week, but he said he wanted to postpone the celebrations until we were all together in the cottage. In the evening we had a barbecue – the weather held out lovely for us.
Although the cottage was in a rural area, it wasn’t far to the coast and other tourist attractions. We did a variety of things including a visit to a Butterfly House, a scenic ride on a steam train to Devils Falls to see the water falls and had a few days at the beach. The beach we went to was at Llangrannog, it is a beautiful cove, so scenic with grassy cliffs at either side. It is actually made up of two coves, there were even caves for Luke to go exploring in with his Dad. It’s a steep walk/drive down to it, but its well worth the effort. In the main the weather held out for us, we did have a little rain, but it didn’t detract from our enjoyment other than it stopping us from getting on the beach at New Quay, but there’s always next year… within a day or so of the holiday we were all already talking about a repeat trip.
Callum loved the beaches. We could tell he wasn’t his usual self, but we were still putting that down to his teeth.
So, as August draws to a close, we are all feeling relaxed and enjoying ourselves.
Now, where’s that ice-cream parlour…
See ya,
Amanda xXx
