It's been one of those weeks

Monday: I am tremendously productive in the morning, paying bills, taking care of procrastinated tasks and managing to almost locate the top of my desk. At 12:45 Liza has her first swimming lesson over at the university pool, so at 12:30 I pull into the parking lot. The pool looks pretty easy to find, so I leave the map in my car (mistake 1). I'm not sure what the locker room situation will be like, and the pool isn't too far away, so I leave my stroller in the car (mistake 2). It takes 20 minutes of wandering around to even find the building, which doesn't have a name on the outside. Maybe I was just hormonal from having my first real period since August 2, 2004 (hooray!), but I was pretty much in tears at this point, and Liza's 20+ pounds of bulk weren't helping things. Then it took another 10 minutes of trying the various doors to the building, each of which seems to open into a variety of incorrect dead ends - fitness center, men's locker room, etc. I finally managed to find the right door at 1:00, and I still had to get Liza into her swim diaper and swim suit, which was fun because I didn't have time to go looking for a changing table. We made it into the water at 1:05, and the class ended at 1:15. I have not been that stressed out in a long time, thank god.

Tuesday: I get almost nothing done this morning, since we have guests staying over and I need to cook breakfast, etc. We have a standing playdate at 10:30 at a local park, and Liza cries for most of it and refuses to play with anything until five minutes before we have to leave. I drive to Kroger to pick up some prescriptions, only to realize that I left my wallet at home in the other stroller. There isn't enough time to go home and get it and still eat lunch before swimming, so we go to Sonic and make our lunch decisions based on the change I scrounge out of the car seats and my gym bag. We make it to swim class on time, but I'm still all freaked out from the five minutes when I thought my wallet had been stolen from my bag. Liza's mobility is increasing by leaps and bounds, so that anytime I leave her alone for a few seconds, I'm liable to come back to a scene like this:

Wednesday: I am feeling back to normal, especially since I actually slept well the night before. Liza gets up early, so later I put her down for a brief morning nap and try to get the new bicycle seat installed on my bike. I finish pretty quickly, so all I have to do before we leave for storytime at the library is adjust Liza's new helmet. Fifteen minutes later, I'm still futzing around with straps and buckles and gromets and whatever. I refuse to be stressed out by this, however, and get it adjusted well enough that we can bike over to the library. Liza spends the whole ride over trying to pry the helmet off of her head - she never succeeds, so I guess I got it adjusted properly. Meanwhile, I discover that, contrary to the laws of physics and common sense, the road between our house and the library manages to be uphill in both directions. We come home, eat a reasonable lunch, and I fairly skip out the door on the way to swimming. Only after we get there do I find out that I forgot to pack a towel, so Liza and I have to drip dry after the class. And I had planned to run some errands around campus, so we ended up walking - dripping wet and cold, despite the 80F temperature - all over creation, trying to get her registered for a pre-school program that won't begin until 2008.

Thursday: Compared to earlier this week, today was a breeze. We went to Liza's OT appointment early in the morning, where Liza once again showed off her determination to NOT stay in a prone position unless forced to or coerced into cooperation by swinging on the platform swing:

Liza was in a foul mood for much of the OT session, but she perked right up when we got in the car to run errands afterward. A trip to the bank, and the grocery store, and McDonalds for lunch, and we still had plenty of time to buy some paint and make it to swim class on time. Liza even managed to blow bubbles in the water, twice - a lot more socially acceptable than her usual trick of trying to swallow the entire pool in 30 minutes. Liza was in such a good mood that I bit the bullet and finally took her over to get her lead test done at the hospital. When we went in for Liza's 12 month appointment, I asked the doctor to request a lead test for her, since we live in an older home and have been doing a lot of work on the walls and trim and stuff. I figured it was just going to be a heel stick, but no, they have to actually draw an ampule of blood for it. So I've been putting off the testing since the first week of May, dreading the thought of the technicians trying to find a vein in that squirmy, squishy little arm. But it was on my to-do list, and today we got it done. The technicians were great - found a vein on the first try - and Liza was a trooper right up until they stuck the needle in her. Then it took two of us to hold her down while the third person drew the blood ... but she recovered quickly afterward, and even got a free stuffed animal and a sucker from the lab techs. Here's our brave little patient, after her nap:

Notice the fetching hot pink stretchy wrap stuff they gave Liza in place of the oh-so-tasty bandaids they have a the pediatricians' office.

It's a good thing this swimming thing only lasts for one more week, and Liza seems to really enjoy it, because it's throwing my schedule all off kilter. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go find the mint julep with my name on it somewhere in my kitchen ...