After cooking whatever is on the menu for the night, Jack and I sit and talk about our days. He tells me everything he learned and the dramas of being a five-year-old, and I tell him stories about eccentric customers who visited the shop – embellishing the stories with some magic to keep him interested.

After our debriefs, it’s his bath time. I struggled with bath time for a long while. When he was very small I used to just wash him in the sink so I didn’t have to bend over the side of the tub, but he quickly grew too big for that. I tried sitting on a stool next to the tub, but it was hard to reach him. Now that he’s five he likes to bathe himself, so I thankfully only have to supervise. I know in the back of my mind I’m going to have to find a better way to deal with it for the next baby. My daily routines are making me realise how much I have forgotten about early motherhood – it all becomes a blur after so many years, but I can feel the problems creeping back over my shoulder.

Once Jack is all clean we snuggle up together in his bed for story time, which has long been my favourite time of the day. Books are where my escape is. When I was a kid I would read constantly. Eleanor was never interested in that side of parenting or parenting at all really. Jack’s favourite book at the moment is The Little Prince. Spending this time with him is another reason I wanted to have this baby. Watching him become a gentle and strong little boy has been the highest of honours, and I want to see him love his sibling fiercely.

In bed alone, as I hear Jack softly snoring, I scroll and scroll through listing after listing, getting increasingly frustrated. I think if I have to look at one more house that I can’t afford, I might have a breakdown. I throw my laptop aside and click on the TV to the sports channel showcasing the NHL highlights.

Back in university, hockey wasn’t my thing. I wasn’t dating Liam because he was the popular, athletic guy on campus; I was dating him because he was funny, kind, charming. He was good for me. He made me feel beautiful. Sure, there were other people who had decided that I was only with him for when he made it big, but I knew the truth. Still, I have all but avoided hockey over the past decade. At first it was because it hurt to see Liam living the high life, but also because if I pretended it didn’t exist then I could try to ignore my lingering feelings.