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 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…
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…
Dear Z, When we drove to our friends’ house, my nerves were so shot by the end that I could barely speak. I had spent the trip in the back of the car, sitting with our son in case he needed some soothing words on the way. Typically, you sit in the back with J. He cries here and there for a few minutes, but he is usually on a trajectory towards sleep as soon as his little eyes open…
Dear Z, Last Saturday, we went on a little road trip to South Carolina to visit a home schooling conference where your dad was speaking. We have been feeling isolated where we currently live, far from family, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. Your dad is a busy man, so the hours on the road were likely to outnumber the hours we would have with him. But after pulling into…