We moved.

We moved, and it was awful.

We moved, and it was awful, and nearly everything that could go wrong did.

We moved, and it was awful, and nearly everything that could go wrong did, but in the middle of it, I took a break to take the big kid to a bubble run, $5 each to run a mile around the track in perfect weather with bystanders blowing bubbles, plus our own bubble wands, snacks, and small cups of boba, a first for him. He tired quickly, but found extra steam when we were done running and all he had to do was joyfully chase the bubbles.

We moved, and it was awful, and nearly everything that could go wrong did, and every part of my body was bruised for weeks, which is about how long it took to sort out all of the money and repairs and losses.

We moved, and it was awful, and nearly everything that could go wrong did, but at some point, it was finally over and we went on with our lives.

The big kid moved into his own room. We thought this would be harder than it turned out to be. He shared our bed until a week before the baby was born, and then shared our room after that. Now he is on his own in the room he will eventually share with his brother, and we have returned to the enormous floor bed that we referred to as our nest. It’s not the best for our backs, but it is the best for the baby, and so we make it work, much as we made the previous arrangements work.

We gave up our couch in the move – sold, along with many other things, to our remarkably accommodating subletter when it became apparent that the couch was not coming out of the apartment. This would have been a much more painful decision had the whole situation not been so absurdly stressful. Instead, we gave it a moment, and then let it go.

In the new place, we have appliances. It’s a mid-century housewife’s dream: a dishwasher AND a washer/dryer. Months ago, I told my therapist that if there was a single thing that could improve my day-to-day happiness, it would be a dishwasher. I wasn’t wrong.

But we also have repairs: windows that don’t close, water damage from previous roof leaks, a closet door that won’t stay on its track. If there is one thing we appreciated about our previous place, it was the responsive maintenance folks. We miss them already.

With the new place, new routines, some intended to save money, like eliminating the Saturday morning grocery store breakfast, and others to capitalize on the disruptive nature of moving, like establishing new cleaning routines, and still others to address the incursion of a horde of milipedes, like mopping the floors with essential oils and hoping for the best.

For Father’s Day, a trip to the north side for lunch, pie, and a walk. We stop at the fancy olive oil store and pick up a bottle. The baby naps in the car. Salmon and potatoes for dinner, just what was requested. We are deeply grateful for our calm and consistent Papa.

The baby’s sleep is broken, temporarily, and I spend a week or more up at 5, walking to Starbucks in order to keep the house quiet and myself going. I choose to focus on the spectacular morning night and the delicious baby snuggles and not the fact that I’m hanging on by a thread.

A colleague organizes a team for the city’s bike to work challenge, and that’s all the nudge that I need to fall back in love with my bike after a few years away. Now I’m frustrated when the weather or other circumstances prevent me from riding, especially since my commute is a total of 5 minutes door-to-door. (I don’t contribute much to my team’s mileage, but I do my best.)

Standing! The baby is standing! And playing with balls! Every ball he can find! At the same time!

I use my last morsel of vacation to take the kids to the beach (we intended to go to the pool, but couldn’t). The last time I was at the beach was my due date, big as a house and so uncomfortable, unbelievably still pregnant after weeks of false alarms. The baby, now on the outside, kicks his feet happily at the edge of the water while big brother runs around. We return home tired and coated in sand.

And then, at the end of the month, my dad retires. It’s the end of an era, and I look forward to whatever comes next for my parents.

June Reading

• Alanis Morissette on Pregnancy at 45, Childbirth, Postpartum Depression, and #MeToo — SELF Magazine — this profile was so, so good, particularly the parts about coparenting and boundaries
• The Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund Helps Women Get Abortions in the South — Buzzfeed — An important and highly personal profile of one family/organization doing the work to ensure access to reproductive health.
• Opinion | Black Women in Chicago, Getting Things Done — NYTimes
• Life Advice for My College-Bound Daughter — Cup of Jo
• My Kids’ Hilariously Passive Aggressive Notes — Cup of Jo — The first letter of this genre that we received was definitely one for the memory box.
• Where the Wild Things Are — Food52 — OMG, this series of posts about Amanda Hesser’s family’s struggles with various invaders had me stifling giggles and horrified gasps
• How Much the Everyday Changes When You Have Kids — Flowing Data
• 1 2 3 Magic – Thomas W Phelan

June Eating

• For Father’s Day, vegan pancakes, 70s salads and pie at First Slice, walking around coffee from The Coffee Studio, and olive oil poached salmon with fingerling potatoes and roasted mushroom as requested.
• From NYTimes Cooking:
  • Mushroom shawerma pitas, except with arugula and served on or with ciabatta
  • Takeout-style sesame noodles with fried tofu — liked this so much that we’ve made it three weeks and counting
  • Pasta with kale sauce — same as above! This recipe is way better than you’re thinking it will be. I promise.
  • Sheet pan tofu and sweet potatoes — also a repeat. Good for a Friday night when you can’t even.
  • Zucchini and egg tart — spectacular brunch food. As delicious as it was beautiful.
  • McBitty’s black bean burgers — we’ve been trying to settle on a solid homemade veggie burger recipe for awhile. These were decent.
  • Chilled pea soup made vegan with soy instead of buttermilk, refreshing on a hot afternoon.
• From The Guardian
  • Roasted carrot burgers — another one for the burger rotation, made first with carrots and then with beets.
  • Butternut squash with black bean mole — a weekend dish, but well worth the effort.
• Palak tofu with rice — simple and a keeper
• Sugar snap pea salad with grilled asparagus, grilled zucchini, and tempeh to make it a whole meal
• Gazpacho, the big kid’s request from his special cookbook, except we didn’t have enough vinegar, and then we accidentally had too much vinegar and so no one could finish.