Dear Z, At the beginning of this week, I dropped you and J off at the airport so you could visit your folks for a few days. Tomorrow morning, the pup and I will get in the car for a long road trip up north to join you. I have rarely received so many messages from you saying how happy you are, but it fills up my heart every time. For these past five or six months, the feeling of…
Dear Z, Last night we were given our second date night since J was born. Your mom was in town and she insisted that we leave for a little while and take advantage of this opportunity for uninterrupted time together. She couldn’t have given us a greater gift. We thought through the options: go for a walk in our neighborhood, see a movie at the nearby theater, use the rock climbing gym gift certificate you gave to me for my…
Dear Z, When we moved into this house, I couldn’t believe that we had stairs. It felt like a real home to have two separate spaces that we could theoretically each inhabit, taking little breaks for alone time. Rarely do we desire it, but it’s nice to know it’s there. When we started getting water bugs, a glorious euphemism for family size cockroaches, the honeymoon was over. We saw one on our ceiling, then in our dog’s food bowl, and…
Dear Z, I wish that I could have protected our time together this evening, but I found myself referencing a particularly difficult social situation even as we were lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. We had plenty to talk about that day without it. You and I are never short for topics of conversation, one of the many reasons I continue falling more deeply in love with you. Thinking about the huge part that conversation has played in our…
Talking to our friends, I told them I didn’t mind having our son sleep in bed with us. “He needs to be close to another human. Besides, he’s really cute.” The husband pointed at me and said, “but you get to go to work in the morning.” This weekend, I was so excited for a day off together. Sleeping in, making coffee, maybe even having sex if our son took a long enough nap. Besides, we were going to go…