no better way.

This morning, I got up for my two o'clock pump and found you feeding the baby downstairs. I kissed you both good night after delivering the next fresh bottle and headed back to bed, only to hear Rowan start hacking away from her bed. None of us ever really fell back asleep after that, and the baby had a blowout after my six a.m. pump, and both of us have come down with Rowan's cold, and it was raining out, and we were short with each other as we tried to wrangle both kids into the car.

So, basically, a pretty accurate illustration of what this season of our marriage entails, seven years in. Not much sleep, not much patience, a lot of laundry, and a lot of love.

I never got around to posting about our sixth anniversary last year, but it was wonderful. Sunny, hot, relaxing. We took Rowan canoeing on the river and all napped in the afternoon. 

Ahhh, so relaxing. Remember having just one kid?!

This year, as I said, we were all awake all night. We went to library story time in the morning and out to lunch at our favorite deli, where I bounced Calvin in the carrier and tried not to drip mustard on his head while you helped Rowan with her water and wiped her nose a thousand times.

Nap time - and I use that term loosely these days - was spent pumping and cleaning a baby who had exploded of both ends while listening to Rowan jump on her bed upstairs. Calvin had something wet on his clothes, and our conversation went as such: "Is that poop or spit-up?" "I don't know, smell it." "I can't smell anything; my nose is stuffed up." "Bring him here and I'll smell it." Afterwards, we dodged the rain to get our annual picture in front of the red barn on the farm where we got married, and we braved witching hour to get dinner at the pizza restaurant that catered our wedding.

On the property where we got married.

Mmm, Cottage Inn!

Now we've been playing bedtime roulette for over an hour, both kids thrown off by our dinner outing. Rowan has called me up roughly a jillion times (most recently because she was stuck upside-down with her hands on the floor and her feet on the bed omggg), and Calvin just choked on his reflux meds while protesting what is usually his most solid block of sleep. 

It wasn't a leisurely bike ride or a fun canoe trip, and there was a whole lot of poop, snot, and spit-up involved, but I can think of no better way to spend anniversary number seven than navigating a typical day together.

J.J., I love doing this life with you. I'm so glad you're the one I get to laugh with and cry to and raise my babies with. It's even better than I imagined it would be on our wedding day seven years ago - and I imagined it being pretty awesome.

{wedding day}
photo: Michelle & Chris Gerard

{first anniversary}

{second anniversary}

{third anniversary}
photo: Lesley Mason Photography

{fourth anniversary}

{fifth anniversary}

{sixth anniversary}

{seventh anniversary}

Here's to seven more, and then seventy more after that.