Six years, 19 months, and 17 weeks!

Those are our significant numbers this month! As of July 16th, Tim and I have been married for six years! That was also the day that Addie officially became 19 months old. And I'm 17 weeks pregnant.

There's a lot going on there and it would take me many posts to "unpack" each of those numbers and what they mean to me. For now, I hope it will suffice to say that I feel very blessed and very ...full. In a good way, not in the "why did I eat half a bag of tostitos followed by way too many cookies?" way. Not that I've done that recently or anything :-)

There have been some years in the past where we were able to make a really big deal out of celebrating our anniversary. This year wasn't one of them! Tim is just way too busy for us to get out of town. During this rotation he has to be at work every day for at least a few hours, even on weekends. That doesn't lend itself to vacations or even an overnight trip. We settled for a family trip down to Lanesboro during the day and a nice dinner and movie date that night. Aunt Sylvia came to babysit, so Addie could have cared less that we were gone, as she loves all her aunties. She did ask repeatedly if "Boney" aka Bonnie and Jack (the dog) and Gandpa and Lita were coming with Sylvia. We had to disappoint her on that score, but we were very pleased that she knows who "belongs" to who in a general sense. We ate a lovely dinner at Pazzo, an Italian place in town, and then saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Not the most romantic movie, but the one we most wanted to see! All in all, it was just nice to have a night to ourselves where we could reflect on where six years has brought us and speculate about our future.

I originally thought about titling this post "What a Mess!" but thought that might give the wrong impression of our marriage! The "mess" part applies only to Miss A, and only in the literal sense. She's quite put together in many ways, she just really enjoys making a mess, as you can see. These pictures are of her washing herself with a Thin Mint. I'm not really sure why she decided to use a cookie as a washcloth...my best guess is that the minty goodness was so awesome she just wanted to bathe in it. Who hasn't been there?

Edit: Technical difficulties. I'll have to work on this. For some reason my pictures went to an undisclosed (to me) location.


There are a few other developments I haven't recorded yet. Addie likes to play the "name game", where she'll suggest some names for herself and laughingly reject them. It goes like this. "Indy? nooooooooo!! hahahha!!!!!" "Rocky? Nooooooooo!" and so on through all household objects and her friends' names before finally saying "Addie? Yayayayayay!" She also knows her full name, which she pronounces as "Ad-ade Camel Edolled". That's not a bad approximation of Adelaide Campbell Ewald, in my view.

Ads learns more words and phrases every day. She is now using short phrases on a regular basis and is starting to speak longer phrases. One of my personal favorites is when she says "thank you." I've often said "oh thank you, Addie, my sweet girl" when she gives me a hug or "thank you, my good girl" when she is listening (granted, I don't get to use that one a lot!). Yesterday I gave her the remnants of a Rice Krispie treat, which really got her jazzed up. She started squealing and dancing and said "Dank you! Oh dank you, my good mommy!" I felt pretty special even though I know that was totally reward based!

Speaking of rewards, we have access to Addie's 18 month pictures now. The photographer doesn't actually want folks to post pictures on Facebook or blogs, but you are able to view them on her site. You can also order pictures from there (grandparents!) if you'd like.

Her site is here: http://willowphotographybybeckywooten.com/ To view Addie's pictures, just click on the link and then click on "make an order", which is the fourth link in the black task bar at the top. Scroll down to the bottom and click on "Ewald 18 months". It's really really difficult for me to pick my favorites because I thought they turned out so well!


In baby news, all is quiet on the uterine front and I'm pleased by that. I still feel emphatic little thumps and bumps (my kids don't flutter!) and that is still reassuring. The heartbeat ranges between 140 to 160, which is inconclusive as far as determining gender via wives' tales. If you don't know what I mean, I'm referring to the wives' tale that says a low heart rate (around 130) usually indicates a boy and a higher heart rate (around 170) indicates a girl. Mine is smack in the middle. Baby is playing it close to the vest. We have our big anatomy ultrasound next week,and we are of course looking forward to that!

Fireworks

Little Miss America! My friend Diana took this picture on her phone. Thanks, Diana!

Our Fourth of July was lovely. We had a fun time cooking out with friends, and Addie almost made it to the fireworks. We ended up driving home at about 9:30, and the fireworks started at 10. She quieted down once we got her into the car, so we drove out to a hill near our neighborhood and watched the light extravaganza for half an hour. Ads was transfixed. She watched the entire thing in absorbed silence, battling drooping eyelids. Every now and again she would remark quietly "pwitty". All in all it was quite different from the shrieks and wild reaction that I thought we might get ...but it was lovely and peaceful. And we finally watched the fireworks, for the first time in our three years here!

Otherwise, life is ticking right along here for us Ewalds. The baby is doing great...there is finally a lack of fireworks on the pregnancy horizon, which is a nice change! He or she is kicking on a regular basis, which is very soothing for me. Tim felt him/her kick for the first time on Sunday night. That was really exciting, mostly because he had a look of sheer delight on his face. And no one looks quite as happy as Tim when he is happy! He smiles with his whole face and being when he really means it, and I love it! Fatherhood is such a different experience than motherhood, especially during pregnancy. It's nice for him to be able to experience some milestones too.

I feel a lot better these days, thank heavens. I have such sympathy for people who are chronically ill or in pain, because I was a total crab for about two and a half months. I felt so ill and uninspired, and I couldn't get anything done around the house, which just fed into the cycle of stress and fatigue. I think Addie was the only person I was nice to during this time period. Every time I go through the first trimester, I think "ugh, no way am I doing this again". And then I get to this point in the pregnancy and I think "sure, I could do half a dozen kids"! It really is the honeymoon period. I have a tiny little baby bump and I can feel the baby moving, but I haven't yet reached the "behemoth" stage of lumbering around in pants that are held together with a ponytail ties and a lot of generous elastic. And I'm sure when I'm in labor, I'll think "never again" only to switch right back to "let's do it again!" when I hold the baby for the first time. Funny how predictable those feelings are, right?

Addie herself is in a challenging phase, speaking of fireworks. The girl is a firecracker all on her own. She's a runner. As soon as we reach our destination and her little feet hit the ground, she's off. And she doesn't stop running for the entire time that we're "there", wherever there might be. She has little regard for things like...water that is over her head, streets, fences (she tries to squeeze through them), other people, rivers...these are a just a few things that I've had to worry about. I'm starting to have sympathy for those parents that put their kids on leashes. I haven't resorted to that yet...we're just working really hard on better listening skills...but seriously, she scares me sometimes. I'm proud of her independence, but I wish she had a bit more fear or inclination to stick close to me. I call her "The Lone Ranger" because she's always off exploring on her own. I think this might be my fault because every time we leave the house, I say "OK, let's go have an adventure!". Clearly she doesn't find splashing happily in the shallows adventurous enough!

The lack of obedience is a big problem when it comes to the "Lone Ranger" issues. And it's kind of problem elsewhere too. She clearly understands simple directions, but she often chooses not to follow them. I've decided that I have to get tough on her, and neither one of us is enjoying the process. She's had quite a few instances where she's had to go to Time Out several times in a row, for failing to listen. Addie is both dramatic and stubborn...so Time Out becomes an ordeal where she either screams and wails piteously for her whole MINUTE of punishment, or she treats it like a game. She's supposed to sit on the bottom step on her bottom. So she'll hover over the step almost sitting down, but not quite. Or she'll stretch out her arm or leg so she's touching the step but is not actually ON the step. I have to hide my smile when she does this, because honestly, what kind of 18 month old is smart enough and sassy enough to get the nuances of "I'm going to obey you, but just barely"? So it's a little bit amusing but mostly exasperating because I refuse to have a bratty child. I mean, clearly she'll have times where she acts like a brat, because all kids do from time to time, but I don't want that to be her M.O. from here on out.

So it's a tough time in some ways, as Addie tests her boundaries. But that's normal for children around two. I think she is a bit on the early side for this kind of behavior, but hopefully that means she'll just get through it faster. At least until the next bout of "testing" starts!

I have a lot of pictures of Addie that I haven't uploaded, so here's a random group of shots. This was probably about a month ago, at this point! Sheesh, time flies around here.

The birthday boy (at the time!)


Addie ditched her bathing suit at some point and went for the diaper only look.
She really likes sitting by herself in big chairs. I think it makes her feel grown-up.
Emmarie and Ava, dragging a large tube around. We're going to miss Em and her family so much! They relocated to South Dakota, and it's already slightly less fun around the Roch. Baby Bennett, our newest addition to the playgroup!
Precious little Charlotte, wishing she could get in on the action already!