Performance Gear.

I have to admit something I'm kind of embarrassed about  in a "where's my moral fiber" kind of way.
While I was hemming and hawing back in April about whether or not to quit my job one of my primary concerns was clothing.  "If I quit," I thought to myself during the darkest hours of the night, "I won't be able to buy the clothes I love as frequently as I love to."  Toss, turn, repeat.

Of course, the benefit of taking some time for myself as well as spending some time with the newest (and most important) man in my life greatly outweighed my concern about not being outfitted in the season's finest, but I look back on those materialistic worries and cringe the same way I do when I remember the night my college roommates and I jumped in a car with someone we didn't know and made him drive us 45 miles back to campus. 

I was so stupid! 

In the latter example, stupid for going with someone who could have driven us into the woods never to be heard from again.  In the former, stupid for being a materialistic cow AND believing a fabulous chartruese pencil skirt would be a necessity for the summer of 2012. 

What I didn't know during my J. Crew panic attacks was that I'd have nowhere to wear the clothes I once coveted while on mommy duty.  Making bottles, rolling around on the floor, going for walks in 110 degree heat, and acting as a spit-up sponge are not best performed in silk dresses, wedge sandals, or giant coral beaded necklaces.  My worries were for nothing.

When maternity leave internship morphed into a full time job, I discovered that I spent another part of my life building a wardrobe for this role.  When I was running I thought its purpose was to keep me in Olympic shape (ok, a bit of an exaggeration but I'm in the spirit!) and make me faster.  I had no idea it was really to provide a wardrobe for child-rearing.

Marathon, half-marathon, 10K and 5K race shirts used to be reserved for the drive to the gym.  Not anymore!  Sure, they wick away sweat away from the overheated athlete's body, but they also withstand spit-up, drool, and the surprise diaper change attack.  They can be pulled, bitten, and grabbed with zero damage!  They can be washed half a million times and retain shape and color.  Why hasn't this been an infomercial?

THANK YOU performance gear for being my, oh so sensible, Summer of 2012 fashion statement.  I know, I know, you are at your peak during races and probably a bit embarassed by my ode to your baby-shielding properties, but having an eight month old is is more trying and requires just as much endurance as any of those marathons we encountered.

I'll leave you with some hot pics from the Summer 2012 Line:

Versatile gray shirt that goes with ANYTHING and I'll wear with anything! 
A must for your summer wardrobe.

This is my choice when I want to step it up for my Target run.  Sure, it's technically a golf shirt,
 but it fits into the "performance gear" category and works hard on and off the course. 
(PS - I'm never on the course.  Even if I didn't have a baby I wouldn't be there.
 This is from a summer I tried to get into golf to replace running.  Major fail.)

This little number doubles as a baby toy!  The boy loves trying to bite the hair on the little runner girl.
 Look close!!  It sparkles.  Could Chanel do this?  I don't think so.

This is part of Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop but I can't get the damn link to work and I have to head to the airport for (yet another) exciting travel adventure with my baby.  Sorry there's no pic, Mama Kat!