Craving Approval

This weekend was full. Aaron had a four-day weekend, and spent 2 days of it sick, then 2 days painting. BIL Josh and SIL Erica along with baby Madeline made their first road trip to meet her next-oldest cousins and stayed with us Friday night. And I made significant progress on my next-baby goals! Here's more on all that:

Taste of the Future: The visit of baby Madeline gave us a teeny tiny taste of what's to come for us - Leah was a little jealous of the divided attention of her most attentive auntie and uncle, who still managed to do a good job of giving her that much-desired time and affection she so obviously doesn't get from her own parents.

Shortly after they arrived at our house, we girls decided to go to Target - leaving the boys to be lead by Ben on their own shopping excursion. This was Madeline's first shopping trip, and she was doing excellently until she filled her pants and was NOT happy about it. While Erica made the necessary trip to the bathroom with her, Leah and I looked around a bit. I've been taking every opportunity to get Leah and Ben ready for the arrival of this new sibling, so we had this little conversation:

- (As Madeline's new-baby cries recede into the distance) Leah, we're going to have a baby like that soon! What do you think about that?

- I don't want him in MY room!

- Of course he won't be in your room! Why would he be?

- Because you don't want him in your room, either!

Hmm, she has a point. This all stems from a discussion about Ben moving into her room so the baby can have his current room. Hopefully we'll be able to keep Magnus in our room for a few months at least, but as both of the other two have been loud sleepers, I don't have expectations of a year spent in our bedroom.

The entire time Madeline was at our house, I only heard her cry when she got her diaper changed. I keep telling Aaron I hope that Magnus is that good natured, but maybe we've used up all our good baby credits?

Painting: Aaron had recovered from his illness by Saturday, so that afternoon he started painting the accent wall in our entry. We had bought a full gallon, but probably could have gotten by with a quart - so I suggested he use up more of that lovely green paint in the main level half-bathroom. It was on our list, but not an emergency at all...but since he already had the roller and paint pan dirty...He and Josh took that on, and I tried to help prep the room. By bedtime we had a sophisticated new bathroom, minus a large towel rack that has always seemed completely useless to me.

Sunday afternoon he started the main color in the entry and upper hallway. All that is left now is the trim work - and lots of it, thanks to the chopped up wall space. I'll post photos when it's all done and decorated pretty-like!

Scrapbooking: Friday evening, after doing a newborn photo shoot for Madeline, Tara stayed to scrapbook a bit. Although pal Stacie was also over for a bit, I seemed to be the only one truly focused on scrapping - but that paid off for me! I finished 10 pages, which wrapped up that family album, catching me up to last June. The next day, I finally did the two pages I'd left in a previous album for my brother Dave and SIL's Jessica's wedding. It's only, like, two years overdue. No big deal, right?

Also, I'm starting a smaller album of our trip to Cape Cod for Aaron and Kate's wedding about a year and a half ago. Time to let go of the guilt and get these special times into books! Plus, they will all be here in May for the Fargo Marathon. I need to show off my handiwork! Because obviously, the intrinsic rewards are not nearly enough for me.