The end of summer is near. I can feel it in my bones and in the bones of our house, too. Each morning we wake up in fall only to meet summer again by the afternoon, the sun hot and relentlessly beaming. And because we have felt fall in the morning, our afternoons are spent with a deeper gratefulness. As I cook dinner each evening, I open the window nearest where I stand. I know the AC is running and I shouldn’t let all of that cool-bought air out, but I cannot help myself. I long to feel the heat outdoors. Soon, the windows will be locked and sealed for…

Dear June, In July of your first year, you like to follow Mama around yelling “hold you, hold you.” Everyone always thinks that you are saying, “horseshoe” but your daddy and I know better. We know lots of fun things about you that you might possibly out-grow or forget with age. I’ll record some here now, so that later, we can re-read them and remember what life was like. We know that you love frozen cherries in the morning, but not too many mornings in a row. We know what books you like best: Curious George, Chickadees at Night, The Berenstein Bears and the Spooky Old Tree. We know that…

In the mornings when the clouds hang low and the sun stays hidden, June and I sit on the couch together, so close that we could still be connected as we once were. I often forget about those days with June: when she was only an idea in my mind and a beating heart beneath my lungs. For months we thought she was a little boy. I would press my hand upon my belly calling her “Milo” or “Sam” or a handful of other boy names we were trying to choose between. But all along she was our June. I should have known. Thankfully, my mother’s instinct has improved since…

The yoga studio is always warm with music playing and an instructor standing in the corner welcoming people. Crissy and I enter while laughing at a story I had just told that was intended to make fun of her, but somehow ended with me as the butt of the joke; friendship is like that sometimes, you can never tell where the joke will lead. We have gone to yoga several times since we signed up for our membership, swapping out our former habits with newer, healthier ones. Crissy says we should strive to form an addiction other than drinking red wine together and I know that she is right. So,…