May 22, 2006

We've just come back from our holiday at Center Parcs and we all had a fab time - especially Charlie. For the first time he's really understood the concept of holidays and really enjoyed himself. He thoroughly enjoyed his first try at 10-pin bowling and absolutely loved the swimming pool - we bought him a shortie wetsuit which kept him really warm, so his colour was good the whole time he was swimming and he didn't get breathless at all, which we were really pleased about. Every day he does something to amaze us - his favourite thing at the pool was the huge adult-sized tube slide which he shot down with no qualms at all, shouting 'AGAIN!' as soon as he hit the water at the bottom. (The only down-side was that he was too small to ride alone so one of us had to go with him every time!!)
Charlie also spent a couple of hours in the 'Bumblebees Club' - a creche run by Center Parcs, while Pete and I had a lazy afternoon in the spa! It was only the second time we'd ever left him, so I was a bundle of nerves, but he couldn't wait to get in there! According to the lady looking after him, he didn't even notice we'd gone, ate everything they gave him and basically played himself silly! How proud were we?!?!
We've just had the date through for Charlie's six-monthly checkup at the hospital here in Cardiff - June 19. It's quite scary going to the hospital these days - partly because there's always the irrational fear that we haven't spotted something major and that they'll take one look at him, throw him on a trolley and whisk him off to ITU (!) but also because he's getting older, we never know when his consultant might say it's time for the next op. We're still hoping it might not be until early 2008, but we really don't know. We know he has to have his stage three surgery, and that it will give him even more energy than he has already, but the thought of having to put him through it all is really not nice. At the moment, while we don't have any firm idea of when it will be, it's easier to pretend it's not really going to happen, but once we have some idea of a date I know it's going to feel like a big clock's ticking. We've always known it was coming, but in all honesty, that doesn't make the anticipation of it any easier.