Busy, Busy Weekend

Hello All! We’ve had a busy, busy weekend with Ryan’s last swim meet and her birthday party (photos to the left). It was a good one overall, though I had to say good-bye to my baby this morning, as she left with her dad for a week in Alabama (more on that later). First things first...

The meet… Ryan did swimmingly! Hee hee. Really, she was amazing and finished FIRST in her heat in the butterfly (and shaved nearly 10 seconds off her best time!), FIRST in her heat in backstroke (besting herself by 4 seconds!), and fifth in her heat in freestyle (beating her best time by a second!). She swam a relay as well and, as the youngest member on the relay team (and the first swimmer), maintained third place (but the relay was lost, as the later swimmers lost some time). She was thrilled at her own performance, as were the rest of us. Her cousin Elizabeth was definitely her loudest fan (I have a cold and couldn’t cheer as loudly as normal).

The birthday party… was fun. We had it (early… her birthday’s not ‘til Saturday) at my brother and sister-in-law’s house, as they have a pool (the best part about summer birthdays is that you don’t have to plan any games… the kids just stay underwater). Six little girls splashed around, ate chocolate cake, and generally had a good time. Ryan got some great presents including a pair of swim fins from my friend Todd (and Jonesy, the red Welsh dragon). She was so excited about how much faster they allow her to swim, that she didn’t take them off the whole afternoon.

Alabama… sigh. Ryan will be spending this week with her dad and his new live-in girlfriend (yes, we only just met Amanda, the last live-in girlfriend… yes, I know… methinks we are sensing a pattern here). Anyway, we didn’t know about this girlfriend until Saturday… I don’t think I was meant to know at all, but Ryan has a big mouth. It was not a happy experience for me to learn that my child will be cared for all week by someone about whom I know NOTHING, but there was really nothing I could do. Hopefully she’ll be as nice as Amanda, who has become quite a good friend (never imagined four years ago I’d be saying that!). Thankfully, Ryan is OK with it all. We had a long chat last night and she said some frighteningly mature, shockingly wise, hysterically funny, and achingly sad things about the whole situation. It was bittersweet for me, really… on one hand, I realize I’m raising quite an impressive child and I’m obviously doing something right if she can handle such crap so well. On the other hand, I feel SO sad for her that she HAS to handle such crap at all. She said it all, I think, when she told me, “Mama, I sort of expect this sort of stuff from Daddy, but it wouldn’t be good at all if YOU did it.” No worries there, baby… no worries there.