So, it has been really hot this week, so we took the kids to Water World up in Nowra. They were so excited. Water World is a temporary water park made of inflatable swimming pools with jumping castle sides and big slides to slide down into the water. There were four swimming pools in all, spread out over an area the size of a football field. It was awesome. Until the end. I had taken Arley's floaty vest off, because the water wasn't very deep, and he can almost swim, and no other kids were wearing them. I was in a pool with him and he was climbing up into the jumping castle and sliding down the slide over and over again. The grown ups weren't allowed on the slides at all. I was splashing with Carmie in the pool, and Arley was having a good play on the slides, but then he just didn't come down again. I waited and waited. No Arley. Jeff was standing right outside the exit of the pool, watching us, as he was done for the day. He hadn't seen Arley leave the pool. So I sent Carmie up into the jumping castle part to find him, but he wasn't there. That's when we started to panic. I told the supervisors that I couldn't find my son, and so we all started calling for him. He didn't answer. Jeff jumped into the pool to help with the search, and he climbed up into the jumping castle to check it out and make sure he wasn't wedged in somewhere, while I had the awful task of looking under all of the floaty things in the pool. We thought he had drowned, and that's why we couldn't hear him. I left the pool and ran around the back, thinking he maybe had fallen off the jumping castle. I was screaming and in a complete state of panic. It had been about 7 minutes at this point. Then I couldn't get out from where I was because of the trailers, so I had to run the long way around. I was screaming for Arley, and another woman joined in the hunt. Then suddenly I heard, "Mum! What!!" The little bugger was over at another pool! He had exited the jumping castle pool by a side exit (no other pools even had a side exit), and took himself off to another pool, following a little boy he had made friends with. I was so shaken!! I had to run back to the other pool to tell Jeff to stop looking, that he was fine. And Arley had no idea why I was upset. He never ever leaves my side, and he finally decided to at a water park?? Such a horrible experience! We thought he was drowned and we were looking for his little body. The whole thought makes me sick even now. Afterwards we sat down so we could recover, and I swear, I was still shaken the next day. Arley just looks at us sheepishly when we talk about it.
On Saturday we went to the kids' friends Delphi and Jasper's house for a play and so Carmie could make amends with Delphi after leaving her party crying the week before. It was lovely. They have a pool, so it was nice to escape the heat. And Delphi and Carmie did make amends and are good friends again. That evening we had our beach dinner at Collers Beach so Bella could have a run around. It was so lovely there, the weather was perfect and we took a long walk, collecting rocks and sea glass.
We have still spent a lot of time at home. We did get to the library for a movie screening and then to collect books, and today we had a play at the park with Carmie's friend Ness. I think Carmie might be growing apart from her school friends, which is bound to happen, but still makes me a bit sad. We looked after Carmie's friend Hannah on Wednesday, and luckily those two are still thick as thieves. I took all three kids to the pool for a swim, and then Hannah even joined us for dinner, and almost a sleep over (at the last minute she wanted to go home).
Arley is still into colouring in, and tonight he read me a book that was fairly hard, like seven or eight sentences on each page, and he didn't skip a beat. He is reading so fluently and fast, it is crazy! Carmie still hates to do any kind of writing, but she persists, and she has also been doing lots of imaginative play, which I love to see. They have been making 'castles' out of Magnatiles and using Arley's planes to defend them. They have moments when they play together really well, but a lot of the time it is still Arley pestering her, and he has been doing a whole lot of shouting lately. To make things more fun, I put my back out on Sunday, and it has been fairly excruciating. I am walking around like a turtle, but I did manage to bake my most successful banana bread yet today, so I'm calling that a win!
Outside Water World
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