Making it up

A definite first when we reached centerparcs - there was no queue at the arrivals lodge! Think we got there around 5 and went straight to our little house. Small really took to it - think the lightswitches within his reach and separate bedrooms were the high point of his week

Quiet evening that first night - I popped up to the shop and information to get a map and booklet as I’d forgotten the ones they sent out. Well, they fooled me - the booklet used to be a little one, but now it’s almost A4 so I didn’t realise it was the one I was meant to keep! The map we later found out was of Oasis Whinfell, rather than Elveden (the latter being the village we were at) so not hugely useful I think there may have been some dvd watching after tea, not that I can recall what we had for tea.

Tuesday started the pattern for the week - we went up to the swimming pool in the morning, stayed there for a couple or three hours, had some lunch in cafe refresh (which was actually surprisingly good value) and then took the children to a playground, while Tim went off to do something with his phone as he was struggling to get connected to the outside world. Small cracked me up as we walked to the playground - we stopped to look at the squirrels, and he said “I saw squirrels on autumnwatch”. So I replied “and now you are seeing them in real life”.
He looked up at me and said “I like going to reallife”.

I do too

Tuesday night might have been the night that Tim and I watched The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (buy one, get one free*) [2005]. We’d got it to preview to see whether Big would enjoy it. We thought overall probably not - given that she’d had a fit about the idea of watching Monsters Inc at the Beans at the weekend as it’s too scary apparently, I felt that there were several scenes in Narnia that would result in many broken nights for us in the future. Not that I thougth it was done in a sensational way or anything, I’m just not sure she’d cope with various bits of sacrifice scenes and so on. So we’ve told her she can watch it after she’s read it, which should put off the whole problem for another couple of years!

Wednesday I’m fairly sure involved more swimming and more playgrounding. Small spent much time going down a slide very very slowly - one of the lifeguards had said to me that some swimming costumes do stick, and if his did, she suggested taking off the top half (he was wearing the full sunsuit as I find it easier to spot them at a distance iyswim) and posting him down on his tummy. I didn’t try that til Thursday, and then wished I had done earlier as he shot down the slide with a huge grin on his face, and that was that - we couldn’t get him away from the slides at all!

At this point I shall diverge into a short rant. Well come on, it wouldn’t be my blog without it, would it? Especially on Friday morning, I spent a long time with Small in the children’s area, supervising him on the slides. I had to speak to him a lot about queueing and not pushing in - he doesn’t do it aggressively, he just doesn’t appear to notice that there are ppl waiting, especially as he’s talking to his hands and carrying on some imaginative game throughout. And then I’d have spoken to him and have him take his place in the queue and other young children would push past me and him to the front! I spoke to one young girl who did this - she looked to be around 5 at a guess. She just stared at me completely blankly and denied all knowledge, and then was gone away down the slide.

Another parent came over to speak to her son - and made it clear that the even smaller child (about 2 years old I’d have thought) who was with him wasn’t hers, and said that she prefers just leaving them to fight it out. Hm, but Small won’t, I said, and I’d really rather he didn’t learn to. He’s a solid creature, and will thump Big with little compunction - I dread to think what damage he could cause to a small child at the top of a flight of stone steps I was left yet again wondering whether it’s me or the rest of the world that’s a bit mad

Actually, most of the interaction I saw between children and their parents at centerparcs was rather upsetting. Many parents who obviously didn’t have much of a clue whether they were supposed to be behaving as children or adults as they assisted small children in swimming pools and playgrounds, never really looking like they enjoyed it (I doubt I did either tbh, except for the moments when I had hot chocolate or a mocha in my hand ), others who were totally oblivious to the horrendous behaviour of their offspring mere feet away from where they chatted or read. As we were leaving on Friday I met the eyes of the lifeguard who was standing to attention, closely watching the throng at the top of the steps to the long children’s slide. “Don’t envy you your job today” I said, and she nodded wryly.

Sounds like I didn’t enjoy it at all - that isn’t true. Watching Small with a huge grin on his face as he appeared at the bottom of the flume, or sitting in the waves in the big pool was good. So was taking Big around the river with her discovering she really didn’t need much support at all. I can cope with standing pushing a swing for half an hour, although my heart was in my mouth watching the pair of them on a high climbing frame.

It was a good week.

We rounded it off on Thursday night with a meal out at Huck’s Diner. I really enjoyed this - it was well arranged for families. They have a buffet setup for children so they can get their food immediately, and then go to play in the play area while parents eat at their leisure, and the background music (soft rock, just my kind of think ) really is background. And with a bit of luck I’m submitting the receipt for the meal to work, as a thank you for the overtime that delayed us getting away last weekend

Friday, as I’ve already said, we did manage swimming again. Then we left and headed for Bury St Edmunds and starbucks, to do some website repair work. On from there to the Beans again, where we ruined their weekend eating plans by crashing tea and spent the evening with their other guests as well, Katy and B. Set off for home at 9.30 and were making good time until we got to Markham moor where both the A1 and the road into Retford were shut. So we turned left and headed across country down little windy roads until we came onto the A614, but the whole thing cost us probably about 30 mins.

Home late (unsurprisingly) means it’s been a very subdued weekend. I’m just getting to grips with the washing, and trying to persuade myself that it really is work again tomorrow.

Will blog separately about educational thoughts and discussions we’ve had this week, and will also try to return with some piccies