Instant Summer. Sigh. It was not an easy Winter, it held on and held on and way overstayed its welcome, but we got through it and strangely none of us seems much the worse for it. Lots of colds threatening (but only once delivering) the onset of pneumonia; a brief hospital stay before Christmas; and the news that spinal surgery is now officially an urgent necessity (to correct Cal's scoliosis before it starts to threaten his lung capacity). And all of a sudden it's 80 degrees outside and swampy Maryland Summer is upon us when just last week we were burning through the firewood at a record pace. The surgery - to implant segmented metal "growing rods" which will straighten the curvature of Cal's spine - is really the thing that looms over the coming Summer months. It's scheduled for June 19, the first day of Summer vacation. If the surgery and recovery all go as well as they might, then we will have a much taller Callum, with a much straighter back, no back pain, and greatly improved respiratory function, by the time school starts up again in the Fall. In the interim, well .. Summer, yes, but we are not anticipating anything like a vacation. Meanwhile, Cal is still a fantastic kid, and every day with him is cooler than the one before. To go into specifics right now would be to never know when to end, so ,,, it's not time to start. We are still here, thought I'd write a little note to say so. Very best to anyone who's checking in.

1.29.2013 hello this is Callum. i love the world. The day before yesterday was my birthday. It was amazing! On my next Sunday birthday I would like you to all come. Love, Callum (first lines typed by Cal via on-screen keyboard, the rest by dictation)

Hospital 2012

Cal hasn't had a hospital stay since that incredibly shitty 5 weeks in Fall 2008, which makes us a pretty lucky family. But it was bound to happen again, and here we are on day 3 at Sinai Hospital, dealing with what looks like a pneumonia brought on by a double-whammy of head cold and stomach virus. I will not pretend that this doesn't suck, but things are headed in the right direction and we hope to go home tomorrow. There is so much else to tell about Cal's life since the last blog post, and honestly it's mostly good, but it's not the time. Got to get coffee and go hunker down in Cal's room for movie night, Cal's choice: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Callum the Conqueror at Berkhamsted Castle

... not to mention, the coolest zoo ever

These have been some action-packed days! Callum hasn't been too forthcoming with the blog content, so I guess it's up to me again. Monday was Cal's Granny's actual birthday, which we celebrated with a BBQ at Janet's sister's house. More cool family times, and Cal met his cousin Milly and her daughter Ella for the first time. Tuesday, Janet and her sisters took Granny to see a matinee of The Mousetrap down in the West End, so Callum and I took a drive to Great Missenden (about a half-hour from where we're staying), to the Roald Dahl Children's Museum and Story Centre. Great Missenden is a beautiful little village, where Dahl lived and wrote for the last 35 years of his life, and the Museum and Story Centre is a really cool place, designed to encourage playful creativity. They hand out little notebooks at the entrance for kids to write down their story ideas and Cal came up with a couple of sequel ideas, like "The Twits 2: The Twits Escape in a War Plane." The cafe there had a portable ramp that they brought out so he could get up the step to get inside.Forecasts of constant rain have threatened to derail all our plans for the second half of our trip, but luckily this is the South of England and the weather is so changeable, we've actually had no trouble; instead, we get to see the lovely spectacle of the clouds parting to reveal a gorgeous sunny blue sky, several times a day.Wednesday we took an awesome trip to Mead Open Farm, where Cal got to hang out with horses, cows, sheep, rabbits, and even had his coat nibbled by a goat. He's been running a non-stop alien invasion/robot war narrative, which is occasionally mildly disconcerting but mostly entertaining and funny as he alters it to suit the real-life occasion. Janet's old friend Una came for a visit in the evening.Thursday was our big trip into London, to take a cruise on the Thames and go up in the London Eye. The futuristic architecture along the riverbank provided fuel for Cal's robot war story - patrons of the Tate Modern took in the art blissfully unaware that they were walking the hallways of a robot factory, where Callum was preparing his mechanical hordes to overtake the city. And the London Eye provided the perfect vantage point from which to survey the destruction.Here is where I pat myself on the back for driving us there and back in the thick of London traffic without having a nervous breakdown, and where I pat Janet on the back for her patience with the difficulties of this trek.Thursday night brought a nice visit from Janet's old friend Kate.And today was our zoo trip. Another day that threatened rain but came with enough warm sun to make a zoo trip worthwhile. Cal originally wanted to visit London Zoo and set the animals free, but two successive London day trips would have probably sent his parents to an early grave ... and as luck would have it, we are just a 15-minute drive from Whipsnade Zoo, which is the largest zoo in England, on a massive plot of high land in the English countryside, and which is partly set up as a drive-through safari park where the animals run free. Wallabies and Muntjacks were jumping across the road, and when we parked for our first short walk to see bears and penguins, we were greeted by a peacock, who we followed along the footpath for a while. We got super-close to Yaks and Rhinoceros, and herds of deer and antelope running free in the "no-pedestrians" area of the park. So, Cal didn't exactly get to set any animals free, but he got to see a lot of them living in the freest conditions I've ever seen in any zoo.Our internet connection out here in the country is extraordinarily fickle, and all my pictures are in my phone, which can't seem to get online. When I get a connection, I'll upload some of the zillion pictures we took.Tomorrow: the big throwdown, Granny's Birthday Party Pt. 2!

Chilling in the Chilterns

After breakfast we went to the Beacon (Ivinghoe Beacon, a historic and beautiful high hill near where we're staying). It was a very blustery day and the wind at higher elevation was pretty vicious, so we didn't try hiking to the top as we had planned (there is a trail that seems like it could work for Cal's chair). But right by the parking area we were lucky to see two guys flying big remote-control planes, and one of them was kind enough to give Cal a short explanation and demonstration of his plane.
We came home for lunch and then Gill and Jim and Cal's cousins came to visit us here. Brief excitement over the Grand National punctuated a really nice mellow family day.

England's Green and Pleasant Land

Welcome to Callum's first blog entry, as dictated to me at breakfast this morning:
"I liked the flight. Also I went in an actual plane seat. Everyone was nice to me. I got a TSA Junior officer badge. Today I am back on duty.
Cousin Emma and cousin Kate and Auntie Gill met us at the airport. Then we saw cousin Ben and Uncle Jim. I wish those guys were with us right now.
Yesterday we went to visit the sheep. Also I disguised myself to look like one to get near sheep but it didn't work. Also I was a farmer."
On with breakfast and then probably a little exploration of the English countryside!