SEPTEMBER 2007
A couple of days before we were due to come home from our holidays, Shaun, Mum, Callum and me took a ride out to find a slate workshop that I had fancied looking at. After visiting the place we realised we weren’t too far away from Folly Farm, an attraction that I had quite fancied. We decided to take Callum for a few hours… if only to see the Lemurs (Callum is currently addicted to watching the film Madagascar with Lemurs being one of the key features). When we got there we were surprised at just how big the place was… this was a major attraction. There was something for everyone, yet was more than reasonably priced. I wished we had found it at the beginning of the holiday. We only had time for a few hours there, but we had loads of fun.
We had previously decided that we would not travel too far on the last day of the holidays so that we would not be too tired to travel home… but Folly Farm was worth changing our minds over. We spoke to the others and we decided we would all go. What a way to end the holiday… we had an absolutely fantastic time.
When it came to going home we were all a little downbeat as this time we weren’t rebooking for the following year. I know it makes sense to go to various places on holiday, but we have had three family holidays there, with Callum only being 1 year old the first time we went… the place has got piece of all our hearts. Annis and David put so much attention to detail in to make it perfect for families with young kids. We will go back some day, I’m sure.
When we got home Callum had his first night in his own room… he settled down really well. He does love his new bedroom.
A few days after getting home we were concerned at receiving a letter from the Doctors. It was an appointment for Callum to have his pre-school vaccinations on 3rd October. Normally this wouldn’t be such a big deal, however, we were still having problems with Callum having nightmares about his stay in hospital… in particular he had nightmares about having needles stuck in him.
We had already been thinking that we may have to seek professional assistance to help get Callum over this trauma… to get an appointment for his jabs at this time was a poorly timed coincidence.
I decided to contact our Doctors to see what they advised. I was put on to the Health Visitors as the jabs were normally done during their clinic in the bungalow in the Doctors grounds. The Health Visitor that I spoke to was fantastic. She listened, understood and cared. She offered to do the injections at our house where Callum felt more at ease, but I decided that this may make things worse as it was currently the one place he trusted. To bring the fear into the house may not be so good. We then spoke about sedating him before he had the injections. The Health Visitor said that she would speak to one of the doctors and get back to me.
The doctor wrote a prescription for some Emla cream so that the areas of the jabs could be anaesthetised. I had to collect the prescription and then go early on the day of the injections to have it applied 1 hour before the injections. They prescribed more than we needed so that we would always have some for emergency visits to hospital/drs. So, we'll see how it goes next month.
One thing about Shaun working continental shifts that is taking some getting used to is the fact that he sometimes has to work nightshifts at weekends. An example of this is when it was my cousin Becky’s 21st birthday party… it didn’t seem right having to go without him.
Still, at least Shaun had been around during the day when Callum fell downstairs! Poor kid, he fell down the full flight of 16 steps, our hearts were in our mouths. Luckily Callum had somehow managed to escape with nothing more than a small carpet burn to his top lip. To this day I have no idea how he managed to avoid further injuries. It must be true what they say about kids being bouncy!
Me and Callum went to Becky’s party and had fun. While we were there, Callum had a daft ten minutes popping balloons with Becky’s Dad. Callum now has a new ‘thing’ for trying to burst every balloon he can find…. Thanks Uncle Roy!!!!
Well, better make tracks.
‘Til next time,
Amanda xXx
