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, When we discovered this bed and breakfast, we knew it would be the real deal because they had a poorly designed website. Clearly, they were spending more time on their biscuit recipe and fine white linens. When we arrived, they did not disappoint. You were still pregnant with J, no more than a month away from his arrival, but our foolish plan was to go hiking on this extended weekend of a babymoon. When we arrived, it took…
Dear S, It’s not news to you that I’ve been a mess this weekend. I keep trying to put a finger on how I feel, but keep coming up short. Motherhood has stretched me to the outer limits of all the emotions I’ve ever felt, sometimes in both directions at once. This weekend I’ve felt a new breed of exhaustion, I think. It’s the exhaustion that comes from having a week where I haven’t showered alone or eaten with two…