Christmas survived – and on to 2019

So, we appeared to have made it out to the other side… 400+ miles of driving, 18 or so members of family visited, too many presents received, just enough presents given out, not nearly enough sleep accumulated (although far more down to parental behaviour than Piglet’s mischief), one sitting room floor covered in pine needles and two chocolate Christmas trees created (and consumed). But, most importantly, not a hint of allergic reaction…

A huge amount of that is down to the meticulous planning of our two families in catering for all the dietary requirements across the various members (mostly us). We also found out a few things about Piglet that we didn’t previously know: it turns out he is particularly partial to venison pâté and smoked salmon – who knew!?

It was also one of the less stressful Christmasses I can remember for a while – even if I didn’t follow all of my advice in my Christmas planning blogs as close to the letter as I could have. Do as I say, not as I do (!). Partially because we (and everyone else) knew what kind of things to look out for but also because I think we did a fairly good job of managing Piglet’s energy levels and excitement. Multiple trips to the park, a couple of walks along the beach, an adventure playground – including ambitious zip-wire ride and an unexpected surprise brass band rendition of Christmas carols while stopping for coffee all combined to help.

A particular highlight on the holidays for me was seeing Piglet interact with his cousin. She’s a little bit younger than Piglet, in that she’s about to turn two whereas he is closer to turning three, but they played together very sweetly. Piglet looked visibly delighted to get a cuddle goodnight and tried to reciprocate it with a kiss. It’s fascinating to see the first steps of him forging his own social interactions independent of us. Little does he know the highs and lows that this will bring in later in his life!

2019, it seems, will be a year of Stansfield camping – judging by the (eagerly requested) tent that Father Christmas was so kind to bring us. My ultimate aim is to get Piglet up to the Lake District for a full-on baptism of down-and-dirty primitive camping. But I think there is a little bit of water testing (not literally, hopefully) to do first to make sure that we’ve got what we need to make it work, whatever the weather. There is a particular campsite in Borrowdale that I am desperate to take him to. I went there as a child on the back of my dad being taken there on school trips (from Manchester). They used to tip them out of their sleeping bags straight into the river/stream to get the washed first thing in the morning. Luckily my dad didn’t take quite the same approach with us, and – just today – I’m not feeling like inflicting that on Piglet considering how well he’s behaved over Christmas.

Looking ahead to the year in other ways, my leg seems to be getting better and I should start to be able to do light exercise in the new year. I can’t tell you how appealing that is having been able to do little more than light stretches for the last 3 months. Even walking freely without pain has been something I’ve only really managed in the last few weeks. I honestly think that not being able to do any exercise has been a far bigger motivator to get fit than any fad or craze I’ve followed before. I just have to remind myself of that in a few weeks when I’m trying to drum up the enthusiasm to go running in cold, horizontal rain in late January!

Piglet will also be doing his fair share of exercise (or at least getting up and out of the house) as my wife and him (mostly my wife) have volunteered to do something called 150 hours outside (twitter link). Doesn’t sound like a lot but there are certainly weeks when I don’t spend 3 hours outside the house. There is also 1000 hours outside the house but I’m not sure anyone has the patience or inclination to entertain Piglet out in the cold for 3 hours a day! Still, its aspirational…

In terms of my own exercise, I’m actually pleased that I seem not to have put on as much weight as I feared I might when I was told that I wouldn’t be able to do anything strenuous for three months. But I’m certainly feeling a desire to start eating more nutritiously alongside the exercise in an attempt to return my body to the temple it was 6-months ago (all-be-it a decrepit, crumbling temple that was abandoned years ago and doesn’t even make it on to a tourist trail of relics to visit any more). At very least I think I probably need to more vegetable based smoothies than the peanut butter, banana and cocoa deserts I’ve been drinking recently!!

I make no promises (because it’s totally out of my hands) but I also hope to feature a couple of posts from my very good (milk allergic) friend who is travelling the world in the first third of 2019. At very least I hope he doesn’t have a buttered milk-bread sandwich as his milk-free flight lunch on his way out to Sri Lanka. That, at least, would be a good starting point. I’ll keep you updated as I hear more (and agree his publishing fee in beetroot shots).

Another ambition for 2019 (I’m not yet ready to call them ‘resolutions’) includes introducing a competitive count between me and my wife to see who can make the most ‘organisy’ telephone calls. We’re both absolutely rubbish at phoning people up to sort things (garages/builders/restaurants/car insurance etc…) and avoid it or procrastinate as much as possible. So this year we’ve put a wager on changing that. We’re going to put £10 a month aside and at the end of the year the person who has made the most calls (and logged them) can spend the £120 on whatever they choose! I’m so confident I’m starting a John Lewis wish list already!

I’m very much looking forward to what life with Piglet will throw at us in 2019. I doubt even if I knew I could ever be prepared. I suppose we should be hoping to try him or either (or both) the soya ladder or milk ladder. It definately seems like quite a few months now since we’ve seen any sort of reaction to milk – so we’re either getting very good at avoiding it, or there’s a glimmer of hope that the reaction isn’t quite the same any more. I will, of course, keep you in the loop regarding updates.

For those of you who this isn’t your first Allergen Dad blog post, thank you very much for following me and for your support in 2018. It wasn’t the easiest of years and creating this blog has given me a real motivation and purpose but I don’t think I would keep doing it if I didn’t think it was at least interesting or useful to some people out there. There’s just over 1200 of you out there who’d had a look at some part of the website now! Either because it contains lots of useful information for someone looking for help in managing allergies, or just because it’s nice to witness (from a safe distance) a dad bumbling his way through parenthood with just enough documented success to keep their son alive. Ideally it’s somewhere between the two for most of you, but for whatever reason – I hope I can continue to grow my audience across 2019.