JANUARY 2006
Well, there goes 2005, it’s been a roller coaster of a year to say the least.
It began with Shaun starting a new job after leaving the mining industry despite being there since leaving school. We then had all the trauma and disturbance of the building works at home, and moving out for a while. We went to Iceland and experienced the Blue Lagoon… which had the added benefit of curing my psoriasis. We had a great family holiday in Wales. Callum started pre-school (which he loves!). We had a lovely family Christmas. Of course, the year ended on a low with the loss of my Grandma.
Throughout all this though, the best joy has been watching Callum come on in leaps and bounds. OK, so he’s had a few poorly spells and seen a couple of Consultants at the hospital, but overall he has been fine. He takes everything in his stride, nothing really fazes him. Not for long anyway.
As January starts, whilst feeling low at the prospect of my Grans’ funeral, some good news comes in… our friend (and one of Callum’s Supporting Adults) gave birth to a beautiful baby boy…. Bradleigh. He is wonderful. Congratulations Nicola!. See the Photo Gallery for a picture of Callum with his new friend.
I have now started a new office at work. I transferred to one which is much closer to home. This has brought with it a new routine where I now drop Callum of at my Mum & Dad’s rather than my Dad picking him up. This seemed strange for Callum at first… no longer was he leaving me on a morning, I was leaving him. He was not happy with this arrangement at first, and I was finding it increasingly difficult to leave him, but once I started letting him walk up to the door and knock, rather than just taking him in, he settled into it better.
I suppose Callum had faced one to many changes to his usual routine. Obviously, everything was different over the Christmas period, plus there was no pre-school (he asked us to take him many times over the holidays, he was missing it). Home life was different too with the worry over my Gran’s health and all the hospital visits. Everything was changing and everyone was acting differently. It had to affect him at some stage. He soon came around once things settled down.
Callum’s speaking ability is still improving by the day. He keeps surprising us with words that we did not even know that he knew!
I introduced a new past-time for Callum this month… baking buns. He loves it! Like all kids though, the concept of not eating the mixture until it has been baked seems to pass him by. See the Photo Gallery to see him licking the whisk! Perhaps it’s best not to be present when the baking happens… “what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you” as they say!
Maybe we should have put Callum’s new skill to the test and let him make a birthday cake for our friend Lauren who celebrated this month! On second thoughts…… may be not! Joseph and Sue also celebrated their birthdays this month. Best wishes to you all!!!
There was a time, not so long ago, when Shaun and I would spend much time looking forward to whichever gig/festival we were going to next. How things change. This month we found out that Thomas the Tank Engine would be at the National Railway Museum in York during February. We promptly bought tickets, and cannot wait to see Callum’s face when we take him. We are often speaking about how great it will be for him and getting really giddy about it. Parenthood… it really does do strange things to you!
As the month starts to draw to a close, we notice Callum is looking off colour and starting to refuse his food. We suspect that he may be coming down with tonsillitis again.
Better go give him some extra love and attention.
‘til next time,
Amanda xXx
