Mostly swimming…

Saturday morning found us quickly assembling birthday gifts and cards for a party we had all but forgotten about 😳 All’s well that ends well, though, and the children had a good time and came home with interesting cake (no sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no eggs, lots of fruit and nuts) which Bob mostly ate for them 😉 and a few bits and pieces they had made 🙂
In the afternoon and evening we had thought of going back into the city for some of the University 800 years celebrations, but everybody was so tired that we gave it a miss and just had a pottering kind of day, playing with the dog, walking to the park and so forth.

A has been sleeping really badly again, or at least making me sleep really badly, with lots of snacking and switch-feeding. If it doesn’t calm down soon, I think we may be heading towards total night weaning 🙁 She’s also at that awkward in-between stage for naps, where she can’t really quite manage without a sleep in the day, but if she has one then she stays up really late that evening. I keep thinking I need to decide how to tackle this, but while I’m still tired I can’t get my head round how to change things so we’re less tired!

On Sunday we intended to go to church, but all overslept (in my case largely thanks to A 🙄 ) so stayed at home instead. The owners of our dog-sat dog phoned to ask about getting her back and we arranged to take her to them on the way to Gina’s village where we hoped to catch some Plough Sunday celebrations. Then they invited us to lunch, we got chatting and before we knew it it was mid-afternoon 😯 Since we were only a few minutes drive away we went on anyway, hoping to catch the end of the Morris dancing, but were only in time to see a few oddly dressed men leaving the village hall 🙁 Ah well, there’s always next year 🙂

Some packing was done on Sunday, but mostly list-writing ready for speedy packing on Monday. The children did a fairly good job of following their lists, L and K notably more successfully than J, who really seems to struggle with concentrating on a task for any length of time – although he can sit and read a book from beginning to end without a single pause 🙄 so packing wasn’t too painful and we managed to leave before lunch, do food shopping on the way and get to Centerparcs in time to check in, go straight to our chalet (villa? accommodation?), unpack and still get a swim in before tea 😀
In fact tea had to wait while we nipped next door to deliver a birthday present and eat a slice of cake, then being the mean parents we are we whisked our children away, fed them and put them to bed.
Unfortunately all the activities the children had chosen to do were cancelled (3 day football course for the boys, Wise Old Owl walk for L) which saved us a fair bit of money but left them feeling a bit hard done by 🙁 We did lots of swimming, though, and J, having lost the gasket from his goggles, managed to earn another pair by showing me he could go underwater without them (he just didn’t like to) while L and K soon got the hang of using their float jackets to support them while they whizzed round the pool. The flumes were a hit with L, K liked the trip he did with Bob but then went down by himself without making sure one of us was at the bottom and got spooked 🙁 and J was completely traumatised by going down with Bob and ending up under the water for ages. Eventually I persuaded him to go down with me instead and made sure he didn’t go under at all, but that was his lot. K and L loved the white slide and would happily have gone down there as many times as Bob could stand (three abreast 🙂 ) while J found his level with the currents tunnel and pootling in the shallows looking at the lights underwater. A was very clingy most of the time, unfortunately (developmental phase? I hope so!) so Bob and I got very tired arms from holding her on one arm whilst supporting other child(ren) with the other. Ho hum.
We loved the salt pool (especially when we got to swim outside in the snow!) and L and K were fascinated by the sprugel pool and cold plunge (K wants to go back again soon so he can beat his record for how long he can stay in – I think it’s currently at half a second up to the chest 😆 ) but it was really only on the last day that A got up enough courage to wander along in the shallows by herself – and then promptly tripped over a step and landed on her face in the water!
The play areas were great too, especially the jingly plates (step on them to make bells chime) and the whistly switches (jump on one end to make an organ/whistle sound, then jump on the other end to make a different sound) and K and L both loved the very tall slide. J is too much his mother’s son, I fear.
Last day spoilt, as usual with holidays, by poor behaviour from J 🙁 I really need to get my head round how to pre-empt and prevent this, as it is a sad and upsetting feature of every holiday we have and I’m getting a bit tired of it! On the whole, though, lots of fun 🙂 (Thanks Helen.)