Tales From Little Bennett End

With baby jabs all done and Sally's knife throwing accident fully mended we took a 2 week break and decided to take Callum, his several tons of gear and ourselves up to Scotland to meet his family, our friends and have him breathe his first lungful of Scottish air. We had a fab time and managed to meet almost all of my relatives up there. The first few days were with his family in Glasgow where we took the time to ask a long time family friend John Miller if he'd kindly baptise Callum. He was kind enough to agree and Callum will be baptised in our old family church in Castlemilk at the end of April. We also took the time to ask my cousin Karen's husband Jim to be Callum's other godfather. We couldn't ask for a nicer set of god parent's in Nigel, Jim and Sally's childhood friend Lisa. It was then up to Inverness for a long weekend with Sally's friends Caroline and Stuart, their kids Mark and Samantha and their growing farm of animals. Whilst up there we took in trips to Logie Falls Ullapool and Rosemarkie beach (but the dolphins thought it was too cold). The last leg of the trip was back to the lowlands where we met up with my old Uni friends Boris (whi gave Callum a Hibees football), Carol Aitken (and her wee girl Eliza and husband Kenny) and over to Largs to meet up with Tigger, Julie and their wee girls Abby and Natasha. A very exhausted car load made it bad to West Byfleet and promptly started planning a caribbean holiday (yes it was that bloody cold!!)

Sorry this is all mostly restrospective but with a busy little one its hard to get time to log on. So anyway the first 10 weeks of Callum's life were pretty hectic. We had Grandma Bennett and one of his god father's Nigel here within 24 hours and then my mum came down from Scotland for the first 10 days all to help us get our head around the little guy. Having both been used to our own time and space that's quite a change but neither of us resent it as he just has the most wonderful nature to him. So the first 10 weeks were mostly about introducing the little guy to his family then collapsing with the lck of sleep. On top of all of that Sally sat and managed to pass her Palliative Medicine exam at the University of Wales in Cardiff and Joe managed to overcome a particularly bad sleepless nigth to pas his Project Management Institute Exam. Which makes him now a PMP? We've both vowed never to sit an exam ever again. Well at least never again with a new baby around. With the need for a more practical car I'm afraid the Porsche had to go but not without a tearful goodbye from Callum and Joe.

So first posting to you all is about the arrival of the little guy. Callum Robert John Little was born on Sunday night the 10th of July 2005. As always with Sally and me nothing every comes without a tale to tell. A few weeks beforehand Sally had accidentally severed the tendon on her big toe with a knife and was in plaster for a few weeks after. We had tickts for a Meat Loaf concert on the Friday night at Leeds Castle and even though Sally was 38 weeks pregnant we thought we'd give it a try. Sure enough with these things it was a long walk to and from the stage fromt he car park and a long bumpy walk is just what you need to get things moving. After "Bat out of Hell" we began to start joking about her waters breaking before we made it out of the car park. Having just picked up Sally's new car that day and a certain 3 hours of being stuck in a car park that wasn't a nice prospect. However we made it home by 1 a.m. and as expected her waters broke at 3:15 but no movement. We headed off to labour ward and were sent home with the request to come back and be induced the next day. That didn't go well and we started to get concerned for the little guy at 9 p.m. on the Sunday so we went for a Caesarian. Now we start humming Meatloaf to him if he gets upset.

Callum was born with brown eyes (which are now deep blue) and lovely fairish hair. He has his mum's eyes and his dad's nose and chin. This is Sally and Callum 12 hours after he was born.