We needed groceries for the zingy household and being the genius that I am I decided to go to Wal-mart supercenter. Not only did I decide to go to Wal-mart on a Saturday…..I decided to go on the Saturday before school starts. I know, I know….what in the world was I thinking?

Before I decided to venture out to Wal-mart, I had convinced myself that it wouldn’t be that bad and this would be a great errand for me and my daughter to do together. It would be a change of scenery for her and a good reason to get out of the house.

We arrive at Wal-mart and to my surprise it doesn’t look to bad. We have been shopping about 20 minutes and then I notice things starting to change. The store all of the sudden is a mad house…people with two teeth running around, other people on their cell phone with their cart in the middle of the aisle. You get the picture. (more…)

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Last Tuesday my daughter and I were flying home to Charleston after being in Little Rock for a wedding.  I always try to make sure I have plenty of toys, snacks, and other things to keep my daughter entertained while we are flying.  Our first leg of the flight was great, the hour and 15 minutes that we were in the air seemed like 20 minutes.  My daughter was sooo good and we got lucky enough to sit next to a sweet woman with children of her own.  I didn’t even have to reach into my bag of toys and snacks to keep her occupied.  So I had plenty of ammo for the second leg of our trip!

Our connection was in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and our layover was scheduled to be an hour and a half.  We arrived in Dallas around lunch time and since my daughter was so good on the first flight, I took her to have her favorite food…..french fries.  We got a table at the Fridays in the airport and had a nice lunch.  My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her chicken nuggets, french fries and lemonade.  After lunch it was time to find our gate for our flight home.

On the way to our departing gate, my daughter decides to take a #2.  I am thinking “Yes!  Today is my lucky day!”  For those of you who haven’t noticed, there really isn’t an easy place to change a diaper in an airplane.  So, we go to the restroom, change her diaper and we are ready to go!  We go back to our departing gate with 10 minutes to spare before the first boarding call.  It can’t get any better than this!

Fifteen or Twenty minutes pass, with no boarding call, and I realize that we probably aren’t going to depart in time.  At this point, it is close to my daughter’s nap time…and she wants to get out of the stroller.  Since our plane isn’t even at the gate it is a no-brainer call for me…..let her out of the stroller.  Once I let her out, she wants to push the stroller around the airport.  I find a spot that was less crowded and let her stroll her heart out. 

Thirty more minutes pass, and finally it is time to board.  So I grab my daughter and try to put her in the stroller….big mistake.  I guess she wasn’t totally finished with her airport date with the stroller.  She clings to the stroller like she is hanging from a cliff and instantly starts screaming.  At this point I am standing in line to board, I have a bag in one hand, the stroller in the other hand and my daughter on my hip.  She instantly starts flailing her arms like a windmill and decides to grab the baseball hat I am wearing and pulls it halfway off my head, which leaves my hat covering one of my eyes.  Like a one-eyed pirate with a bag of booty in one hand and a stroller in the other, I manage to get things under control and get my daughter in the stroller.  This meltdown takes about a total of 10 seconds from start to finish…and I am rolling down the jet-way thinking, “Was I just attacked by a spider monkey?  Oh wait, no that was my precious french fry eating, lemonade drinking angel.” 

We board the plane and my daughter is still pretty angry.  As people walk past me they give me this half-smile, and I know what they are thinking…..they are so glad they aren’t sitting next to me.  The plane was full, every seat taken…except one.  The one next to me and my daughter….wonder if that was a coincidence?

The plane takes off, my daughter falls asleep instantly and sleeps the whole two and a half hour flight from Dallas to Charleston.  As she is sleeping in my lap all I can think about is how beautiful and sweet she is.  She wakes up as we are de-boarding the plane and is so thrilled to be reunited with her trusty stroller.

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So this past week was my 20 month old’s first week of swimming lessons at our local community center.  Let me clarify “swimming lessons” ….basically mom and child get in the pool and do a little kicking of the legs, singing songs in the water, having someone pass your child to you in a swimming motion, and quickly dunking the child under water. 

Our lesson is twice a week for two weeks and each lesson is 30 minutes long.  Our lesson is a group lesson with one instructor and about 10 parents with their children.  Our first lesson was this past Tuesday and as soon as my daughter and I got in the pool I could tell she wasn’t having it.  She did enjoy singing the two songs that we sang in the beginning of the lesson, but after about 5 minutes of being in the pool she was over it.  So instead of spending the next 25 minutes as a Jeff Corwin imposter and wresting a small alligator (uh hum, my child) I decided to let her out of the pool…which she was very happy about.  As soon as her feet hit the side of the pool, she ran to the nearest corner…squatted down and pooped.  Lesson complete and thank goodness for swim diapers!  As we were leaving the center, the instructor tracked me down and encouraged me to come back for lesson two….she must have worried that I might be discouraged, which I assured her we had a great time and would be back.

After our first lesson, I just thought well she just wasn’t into it today…she will do better on Thursday at lesson two.  Lesson two rolls around, we get in the pool and we sing our songs and she is having a blast.  About 15 minutes into the lesson the instructor swims over and wants to pass my daughter to me in the pool.  I figure…why not?  As soon as the instructor has a hold of her, she is not happy.  We do the exercise quickly and then my daughter wants out of the pool.  Once again, I let her out of the pool.  The last thing I want to do is keep her in the pool when she wants out and make her terrified of the water.  Can you guess what happens next?  Yup, you got it…she finds the nearest corner, squats and poops.  Lesson two complete!

The jury is still out on the swim lessons.  It could be the fact that my daughter just needs to poop….can’t say that I blame her, who wants to poop while sitting in water?  Or it could the fact that our swim instructor who wears a wet suit, a swim cap with her red hair sticking out of it, and big bright goggles on her eyes resembles some sort of scary salamander.

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