“Mama! Oh my goodness! You are in the pool! I can’t even believe it. This is just…THE BEST.”

My little girl will never know how my heart leapt from my chest at that very moment.

This week I went to Target and bought a black and white tankini. My body is so different than the last time I bought a bathing suit — it’s looser, squishier. Some days I still look in the mirror and wonder whose body this is, since it’s surely not mine. It’s a different body — ten (or twelve, since I discovered chess pie) pounds found. That was hard.

Today I took the kids to the pool, like I have done all week, except this time instead of sitting with my legs hanging over the side of the shallow end, chatting with my nieces and kids, trying to avoiding getting splashed, snapping photos — conveniently hiding behind my camera — I quietly took off my cover up, and got in the pool.

That was harder.

Only … it actually wasn’t.

It was, as Isabella reminded me, THE BEST.