Holidays and home again.

Beware, way tmi follows.

If I could pick any week to go to Centerparcs, I’d try to avoid my period, and any chance of the children being ill. No? I guess not then. On Monday, Small had a very horrid nappy – necessitated application of antibacterial spray to the sofa. I thought it was a one off – how wrong could I be. 🙁 Poor little soul – he spend two days doing horrid things of that type, while Tim and I took shifts to get Big into the pool, and tried not to take him too near any other children. Although I figured that it couldn’t have been anything too contagious, as none of the rest of us had it. And I asked before I took him round to Chris and Alison’s on Tues evening.

Very glad that everyone was OK with us going – it was a lovely evening. Big got to watch videos, Small pottered and later on there was karaoke. Piccies over at Sarah’s 😉

Wednesday, the nappies stopped, although I continued with my aggressive use of Carex antibacterial handwash (washed all sorts of things with it – and my hands so many times that I don’t have skin on the back of my knuckles any more 🙁 ), and Small slept. Boy did he sleep. He woke up every couple of hours for a drink or snack, but was generally only awake for minutes before flaking out wherever he happened to be – the floor, the bath, someone’s knee. I was grateful for once for the extended breastfeeding – although he has been down to one feed a day for ages, when he needed it we bumped up the frequency. Could have done without the 2.30 am one though. I got to take Big swimming – somehow lost track of time and we were there for 2 1/2 hours. Spent a bit of time with Layla and co, which was nice 😉

Evening, and Big went along to games at the Puddles. I joined a bit later on – had a game of Set with Tilda (she’s rather good at that!) and watched Big playing Mastermind and Cluedo. Impressed at how well she picked up mastermind – might have to get our set out. Oh, and I nearly forgot the game I bought for the extra time we ended up spending in the chalet. Called Make n Break and we like it a lot. Although I think it’s rather overstating the minimum age…there’s a way of playing it to even out the abilities a bit – experts get more difficult cards and only score one point per card, and Big beat me hands down when we played it that way. *And* my head hurt 😉

Thursday – Small seemed much better. Tim’s brother and niece came over to join us, and we all went swimming for a bit – well, Small just played in the toddler pool. Was the first time that I saw a few ppl in the pool area, which was rather a shame – it had been pretty much my plan to spend the week there. Best laid plans and all that. Tim and I did manage a few minutes on our own to go down the rapids in the dark, which was entertaining. Not least as I couldn’t read the instructions as to which way you had to be going when…partly because of my lack of eyesight and partly because I was underwater quite a lot of the time 😉 Was amused when two of the smaller ppl who shot past turned out to be small porticos and clarkes….

Thursday evening the rest of Tim’s brother’s family turned up and we had a takeout, so we didn’t get to go round to Layla’s. We did join with most ppl for bowling on Friday morning (Small thought that was excellent – and he was pretty much himself by then as well). There was time for another swim as well – whole family in the big pool together for the first time. Small loves the water, and Big improved hugely this week. So much so that she has decided she doesn’t need any more swimming lessons. Hohum. And after we’d swum, we piled in the car and went over to Felixstowe to see Grandfather.

Small was completely revived by a nap on the way over, allowing him to be a little so and so once we were there. He even managed to wipe out one of Grandfather’s china frogs, at which point I found his coat and walked him over to David and Sally’s. As I’d hoped, there were more child friendly amusements about, not least Gina’s laptop, set up as a jukebox with fractal type screensaver. Kept him quiet for ages!

We had dinner, and finally left about 9, so with a stop for petrol, we didn’t make it home til nearly 1 this morning. Time confused children meant that they didn’t get up til 10 this morning, and we’d no food in the house to speak of. Tim appears to have gone down with some kind of cold bug, so he’s lying about feeling sorry for himself, and I’m feeling more than a little dazed and confused. Now, do I try to dig out the urgent paperwork tonight – or do I veg and run around frantically in the morning? Decisions, decisions…