A Perfect Afternoon

I had the best afternoon with my little buddy today.
The closest state school to our house is an hour and fifteen minutes away. When I made the appointment to meet with an academic adviser my heart filled with fear and trepidation.
I haven't ever tried to go that far away from home without Baby Daddy being with us. The logistics stressed me out all week. Long drive, long meeting, long drive again...and to top it off, Baby Daddy was working late so if my buddy got upset, it was all me until after the witching hour.
She fussed in the car on the way there. But when we arrived, I opened the minivan door to find a smiling, wide-eyed baby girl.
I put her in the stroller and we wheeled around campus looking for our adviser. People walked past and smiled, a few people even said hello and commented on her hat or asked how old she was. When we finally got to the right building, I expected a fit but got only more smiley baby.
I spoke with a nice gentleman who looked at my transcript and said he was sure that getting accepted would not be a problem. We talked about my major and all the while I rolled my buddy back and forth in her stroller with my foot. She just sat there smiling. It was all I could do not to make cooing noises at her while the nice man was talking. We left the building and strolled over to the financial aid office. She laughed and grinned as I filled out the paperwork.
Once I was finished we strolled over to a park bench where we sat together in the sunshine. (The first sunny day in quite a while) I fed her a bottle on the bench and she drank it without spitting it back out all over me. I sat there thinking, if nothing comes of this college venture, at least I had a beautiful day with my little girl.
Nothing came of the college venture.
The classes were all during the day on campus. No night classes available for my major and nothing online.
When Baby Daddy got home, we talked about ways to make it work. I could drop her off at day care in the town the school was in. It would only be a day or two a week.
But how could we afford it? And with her colic, how would we get anyone to commit to taking care of her with patience?
No. We'll just put it on the back burner for now. I had a perfect afternoon with my daughter.
I looked at Baby Daddy and asked, "What could be more important than this"
"Nothing, " he said softly.

Several hours later and I'm writing this down. It's well into the evening and she's been crying since we got home. Baby Daddy is singing "Heaven" while he rocks her in the chair across the room. Nothing is more important than this, not even my blog, so I'm going to sign off for the evening.