Merry Christmas, Waterpark Style

I am at a waterpark this weekend with six kids under the age of 8 and three other adults. We, the adults, are outnumbered but managing okay.  I think it's because the kids get along so well (they're cousins) and the waterpark is indoor, meaning it's contained.

One view of our suite (when we first entered)

We have a three-bedroom suite -- five of the kids are in one of them (which has a bunk and a full-sized bed), Dan and I are in another and Dan's sister, Kelly, her husband and their year-and-a-half-old son are in the one in the loft.  Yes, we have a loft.  This was one of the factors that inspired Cal to exclaim repeatedly, "this is our own personal house!" when we first walked into our suite yesterday as he bounded from room to room and up and down the stairs.

Despite the three bedrooms, there's not a lot of room for personal space.  I mean, there are 10 of us.  There are kids running around and up and down constantly, yelling, laughing, screaming and sometimes crying for one reason or another.  I've been stepped on, run into and had my bed taken away from me but consistently treated with respect and with generally good listening ears.

I'm talking with Fiona, the three-year-old, right now who is repeating, holding up four fingers, "I can juh aw free tares."  The reason she was repeating it was that I... just... couldn't... understand... her.  Her mom, Kelly, my sister-in-law, finally added clarity, "I can jump off three stairs."  I never understand Fiona, yet talking with her is one of the joys of my life.  The kid just makes me laugh.

And now Ella and Fiona are going down the carpeted stairs on their bellies, and I can only think one thing -- rugburn.  Ella is in her bathing suit, and Fiona is in her... well... her birthday suit.  I've seen lots of naked buns, mostly on the part of Fiona but sometimes on the part of her younger brother, Nolan.  I'm looking at his even right now as he pulls down his diaper.

Since we have the suite, we have a kitchen; and since we have the kitchen, we're fixing all of our meals in this suite filled with people.  Kelly did most of the meal planning and grocery shopping; and so far, meals have hit the spot with the kids, animals who go from not hungry to starving in a matter of seconds.  How Kelly keeps her cool with her four kids who need to be fed several times daily, I'll never understand.  I can barely do it with two. But I do get to experience the feeding of a herd up here at the waterpark this weekend. I've learned that it's best to treat the plate prep like a machine -- slap some mac and cheese on six plates, throw a handful of chips on each, open the hot dog buns and put them on the plates of the ones who want a bun and then slap the dogs on the plate, three in a bun, two not in a bun but cut up and I don't remember what Fiona wanted.  I did ask three times who wanted what on his hot dog -- ketchup and relish for one, ketchup for two and nothing for another two.  Still, I don't remember what Fiona wanted on hers.

With the suite rental came 10 wristbands for playtime in the waterpark, a mere five-minute circuitous walk from our suite, a route entirely inside the warmth of the hotel. We walk (well, the kids scamper ahead of us adults) to the waterpark in our bathing suits and some of us also in coverups and flip-flops. That's all we take there because that's really all we need -- afterall, we plan on being in or headed toward a big spash in the water ALL DAY, with a brief break for lunch or dinner.

We've done the waterpark in three rounds so far -- once yesterday when we arrived and twice today (before and again after lunch) -- and have one more to go tomorrow morning. With kids of different sizes, capabilities and interests, we parents are barely spending any time together, each one of us taking responsibility for watching a kid or two in whatever pool or play area or slide he wants to enjoy.  When it comes time to leave the waterpark, we re-group and count little bodies -- 1-2-3-4-5-6 -- not even looking at faces.  It's entirely possible we'll leave the area with someone else's kid instead of one of our own. At least, that's the case under my watch.

Me with the Bobbsey Twins

I've probably spent most of my time with Ella and Ella's favorite playmate, Fiona.  The two of them together is a riot, with Ella trying to boss Fiona around and Fiona listening only when she wants to.  I watched the two of them, non-readers, run past the "No Running" sign many times, which I find both amusing for obvious reasons and annoying at the same time.  Afterall, I did repeatedly insist they not run.  Aunt Carla is very effective at getting kids to listen.  NOT.

One source of much stress

I'd say most of my time has been spent in one of three places -- the lazy river usually sans a tube, the kiddie hot tub and the wave pool which shoots out maybe 5 minutes of constant waves every 10 minutes or so (a howling wolf is the indication it's going to start).  I did manage to get in a few slides with Cal -- three times down Superman on a mat, which is my favorite way to go down a slide, and once on a tube down some kind of Tornado slide with a steep, terrifying drop shortly after being shoved forward once situated and ready to go down it.  To do that one, I actually left Ella (after a lot of instruction and incentivizing) at the bottom of the slide, alone, and worried about her the whole 10 minutes I was gone. To my surprise, she was still waiting for me when we got to the bottom, which I praised excessively.  Blind faith.  I suppose getting some early practice of my comfort with separation and independence is not best done at a waterpark.

That I can even do waterparks still amazes me.  I've never been a fan of goopy and wet.  I cringe every time Ella has to use the bathroom with its certain wetness and globs of wet toilet paper strewn on the floor of the stalls -- we are nothing if not careful and efficient when we "go."  Outside the bathroom, I have to shelve the realization that I'm standing or swimming in water with hundreds, maybe thousands of strangers... practically naked strangers.  I regularly remind myself that the germs are certainly being killed by the excessive amount of chlorine in the water.  And I focus on my breathing and think good thoughts as I go down any small tube, overcoming an undiagnosed case of certain claustrophobia.  I don't know that I'd choose to go to a waterpark if it weren't for the kids... and even then, I'm not entirely comfortable with even that notion.  I mean, there's just so much opportunity to get lost... or worse, drown!  It's all very stressful, really; and I can't tell if the hawk-like lifeguards here are making me feel better or worse about this fact.  There's just so much stress!

The kids with their wolf ears on Day 1

What I am enjoying about this trip is seeing all of the kids interact, get along and kill the waterpark.  I've watched them hang all over each other down that lazy river many times, smiling the whole time and never getting frustrated with each other.  Dan and Kelly are close, almost best friends, with their cousins, and I imagine the same thing happening with these six... or, at least the first five of these knuckleheads.

And what is making me smile most is seeing them love the water.  Cal is never tenative and Ella only tentative about the big water slides. This is such a refreshing change.  Pools and lazy rivers are nothing for them to be afraid of anymore -- they jump in and out and swim and float without hesitation, always with big smiles on their faces... well, except when Ella swallowed a bunch of water from a big wave in the wave pool.  But she was in it!  I guess swimming lessons really are paying off.

This was our big Christmas gift to the Leatherkids this year, and it's turning out to be a good one.  It's not a toy that they'll play with for a month and shelve but later pull out to just throw on the ground immediately during a play date or birthday party.  It's not yet another stuffed animal to throw amongst the fifty others on their beds.  And it's not yet another set of Pokemon cards to duplicate... even triplicate... probably quadruplicate many in the collection we already have.  What it is is a big bundle of fun for the kids to experience and soon to throw in their memories.  I hope they're still talking about it with each other 20 or 30 years from now.