Callum has amazed us all, and survived the whole of the 1st term at school in spite of multiple severe allergies!

Oh my goodness, he’s only gone and done it! I really hope I’m not tempting fate here as there’s still 2 more days of term to go, but my word I can’t quite believe it.

Callum has got to the end of the 1st term!

Yesterday saw the classic rite of passage for any foundation pupil, a part in the first nativity play at school.

I’ll be honest, I never ever thought we would get to this point!

Callum has defied ALL the odds to get here, and I’m not ashamed to say that there were tears while I watched him proudly perform with his classmates.

I attempted to keep them in check, as I was taking the photos for the school, but it was with a heart fit to burst with love and pride that I watched on as Callum enjoyed every single moment of performing as a ‘star’ with his friends. He sung all of the songs they’d learned with gusto.

Who would have thought that the child who has been so very poorly, and has gone through so much actually got to this huge milestone!

As regular readers will know, it’s been a difficult and emotional year as we prepared for Callum to start school.

Letting go, and trusting others with his care has been one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to do, and I won’t lie, I’ve struggled so much with it, an awful lot if truth be told! Every day is a real struggle.

Thankfully, we have found a school that have been quite simply fantastic with him, and that has helped so much!

3 days into the first week of school, Callum suffered a big reaction. It scared us, and it scared the school staff because it was quick. They did us proud though, and were able to deal with the situation effectively, proving they were more than capable of looking after Callum safely.

2 weeks ago, Callum suffered a massive reaction, which frightened the school staff sufficiently enough to clear the classroom in seconds for fear of needing to use his epi pen, and not wanting to scare the other children. Again, they were able to successfully treat him, keep him calm, and deal with the situation really well.

They did admit to the fact that the reaction was so very quick did scare them. One minute he was absolutely fine, asking questions, joining in etc. The next minute, he was spaced out, not responding, rash climbing, pale, feeling sick, too hot, glazed eyes…….

Yep, every allergy parent’s worst nightmare.

I really struggle with this every single day.

It’s so very hard to drop him off at school every morning, not knowing what will happen, how he will be, and if anything will happen. This is Russian roulette at its finest, and I hate it!

I may advocate to parents to take control, be empowered, teach children to be in control, and provide techniques on how to achieve this, but it doesn’t stop my own fears surfacing.

Every day, I dread the phone ringing for fear of the school calling to tell me of another reaction.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve come an incredibly long way, and I trust the school completely. Callum has hot school dinners every day now, so that shows you just how much I trust them all!

So, you can imagine, when you see this incredible, brave, sensitive, clever, amazing little dude stood in front of you, full of confidence and bursting with pride to be involved with the class nativity, surrounded by his friends, and performing to all the parents it’s a pretty momentous occasion!

I can’t quite believe it, but we did it!

Callum has made it to the end of the 1st term, like a ‘normal’ little boy, all excited for Christmas and holiday time with family and friends.

And for that, I am truly grateful, extremely proud and more than anything thankful!

Thankful that my brave little dude is getting to experience life like other little ones, thankful that I can push my fears aside just enough to let go and let him grow.

I think that is my biggest achievement of 2016, wouldn’t you say?