DECEMBER 2004
December has been a strange month, not just hectic, but surreal!
Shaun was technically unemployed throughout most of December! No panic though, he knew he had a job to go to in the New Year. It was nice that he got a few weeks off before starting his new job - it gave him chance to try to adjust to not working at the pit anymore. After almost 22 years working at the same coal mine it was going to be hard leaving and adjusting to another job in a different industry… but Shaun accepted that redundancy is the ultimate fate of anyone working in the mining industry. Still, he was luckier than most, with a little help from a friend he had a new job to go to (Thanks Ian!!).
As suspected, Callum’s 8th tooth came through this month. It didn’t cause him too much trouble, he did drool and chew a lot, but at least he didn’t get to tearful.
We had been looking forward to seeing Callum’s reaction to our Christmas decorations this year - but we were worried about putting them up too early as his natural curiosity and his flair for climbing meant that the tree would almost certainly be a target and he would cause havoc! We decided to ‘trim up’ around mid-month. However, we did decide to take him down to see the Christmas lights get switched on in Castleford.
We did think he was probably too young to appreciate the occasion, but still, it got us out of the house for an hour or so. It turned out that Callum loved it - once the lights went on he sprang to life. Well, lets face it, his favourite sign is ‘light’… I’m surprised he didn’t end up with repetitive strain injury from all the signing he did pointing out the tree and various light displays!
Callum equally enjoyed the lights on our Christmas tree. In fact, that’s pretty much what Christmas was all about for Callum this year… lots and lots of lights!
Once again, Callum was spoilt. Thanks again to everyone for their generosity. When we got up on Christmas morning Callum was surprised to see all the parcels that had arrived under the tree. Well, I say “under the tree”, they were halfway across the living room as well - there were so many.
We help Callum open his presents. He’s still a bit young to fully understand what’s going on, but he enjoyed helping open the parcels and then sat playing with every item. After two hours though, it had all got a bit much and he wanted to go back to sleep. I can’t believe we were going to go out for the day with presents still left unopened under the tree!
We had Christmas dinner at my parents house. My brother, Andy, was also there. We had a good day - I really like my Christmas dinner at my Mum & Dad’s. In the evening we followed what has become a tradition of going over to see our friends Melanie and Ian, and their kids James & Rachel… we miss them living next door, we used to be up before the lark and be round at their house when the kids got up to open their presents… I was often still in my dressing gown! Those were the days… doesn’t seem two minutes since James & Rachel were little and getting all excited about Christmas. Now, James is at high school and Rachel is growing up lovely and is a budding violinist! I think so much of those two… with living next door to them for so long, we watched them grow up and were so involved in their lives - love you guys!
When we got home that evening, Callum was fast asleep and we thought that we were going to have a Christmas morning re-run on Boxing Day. Luckily though, Callum woke up, and with a lot of help from his Dad, we managed to get the rest of the pressies opened by 11:45pm!
Boxing Day was a quiet affair, then we went to see our Andy and his son Luke. My Mum & Dad were there too. Luke was happy to see Callum… not least because he knew he was staying the night in his bedroom with him! Luke was made up, it was Christmas, he was sharing his bedroom with his beloved cousin, and his grandparents were sleeping over too! We went home and got a good nights sleep!!
We saw New Year in at My Mum & Dad’s, our Andy was there, and so was my Gran. It was a quiet by enjoyable evening. My Gran loves watching Callum playing.
We were quite concerned about Callum this month. For the majority of the month he has been eating very little. Normally Callum has a very good appetite, but for weeks he was eating next to nothing. As much as we understood that most kids go through these stages and that as long as you keep offering the food they won’t starve themselves, we couldn’t help but worry. I suppose in the back of our minds we were concerned because he is already underweight. After a couple of weeks we phoned the health visitors at the clinic and discussed our concerns. They reassured us that there was nothing to worry about and that we should just take him to clinic early February to be weighed. This did help settle us a little, but it disturbed us.
Despite not eating, Callum has still been his usual active and happy self. We get so much pleasure from him and still cherish every moment… the ‘newness’ never seems to have worn off… there’s always something new with babies/toddlers as they grow, develop and learn. It’s wonderful.
Well, must go.
Happy New Year!
Amanda xXx
