Smelling of chlorine and chocolate fondue

Oh man, I've been really having a rough time with the guilt and doubt associated with child care. I thought all of this was worked out until my daycare unexpectedly closed last month; which has me rethinking everything I once believed was completely sorted out. This feeling is nothing new to mothers, I am sure, but some days it's more difficult for me than others; especially those that begin with giggles, whispered 'mama' and blowing kisses. The mornings where my toddler dumps her bowl of eggs to the dog, sticks her foamy toothbrush into my hair, acts like I'm wiping her butt with 80 grit sandpaper and tosses my hairbrush into the toilet, not near as much. However, today presented one of those moments where nothing sounded better than keeping my monkey-child hanging from my hip for the duration of the day, reading (and re-reading) her favorite books (Thomas flip book, Blankie and her books about colors, among others), following her around the house and redirecting her from pulling every last square of toilet paper off the wall.

It was most certainly a day for hooky.

I sent a few text messages to cover the bases with work and we embarked on our first adventure of the day which was to purchase swimsuits for a wintry dip into the pool at the gym. All I can say is, thank goodness for the color black and those goofy little skirt-looking swimsuit bottoms (and also for animal crackers which kept my little one inside the Target dressing room for 1.46 minutes and not crawling under the door while I was standing there sans pants whilst trying to squeeze myself into a size medium tankini top). Rosemary's suit was much simpler to select as anything that is sized at 18 months is going to be darn cute and I'm pretty sure that she's not the least bit concerned about thigh coverage.

The trip to the pool was exactly what we needed on this cold, January day and I wrapped up my afternoon of hooky by sitting around fondue pots of milk chocolate with a fabulous group of moms; because everyone knows that after shopping for swimsuits in the middle of winter nothing brightens your mood and makes you forget about all of those holiday cookies more than heaping bowls of melted chocolate.