The Ego-stroking Issue

I'm super excited. I just finished eating dinner, which I made. Those of you who know me well know that my "cooking" is usually a craps shoot at best, even if I follow a recipe. Well, tonight, I threw caution to the wind and created a meal from scratch, using my fridge contents as inspiration, and even producing (gasp) a sauce!! Not only did it not suck, but I thought it was pretty good. I'm so stinkin' proud of myself. Granted, my pasta was a little sticky, and the steamed broccoli was a little cold because I am terrible at timing the different elements of a meal, but the hard part turned out great.

Since I'm patting myself on the back, I might as well mention that we've clearly identified Quinn's "love language." Now I don't know too much about the 5 Love Languages, but I have a dear friend (LC) who read the book years ago and always talks about them. I do know that one of the languages is verbal affirmation (or something similar). My dear son has turned verbal affirmation into his true calling, and he boosts his frazzled mother's self-esteem nearly every day with this. I asked him the other day if I could take a nap while he watched a movie. He agreed (and only woke me up once to ask if he could eat a lollipop). When the movie was over, he stroked my head and said, "Good job sleeping Mama!" The next day, I came out of the shower to Quinn saying, "Good job in shower Mama!" Gee, thanks. I've been working on that one for about 25 years. He also clearly doesn't understand what a birthday is. After a not particularly impressive dinner the other day, he said, "This is the best dirtday (birthday) ever!" Huh?

So Maddie's room is coming together nicely. We've been maximizing Jalal's time off and buying the last couple of pieces of furniture we need. Now Quinn has a new dresser, and Maddie has his changing table and a new bookcase. The wonderful women at my church are throwing me a baby shower later this month, so we're trying to hold off on buying anything else. I am just putting clothes away and stocking the changing table with all of the sample diapers we have (I think I've gotten at least a dozen!!) and stuff like that. It's getting so close! She's due 6 weeks from tomorrow. I can't believe it. My doctor's appointment on Friday went great. All my tests look good, and my blood pressure is great (unlike when I was pregnant with Quinn). The downside to all the good news is that it seems we won't get another ultrasound as long as she keeps measuring right on track. Boo. Well, I have to go give a bath to one stinky little boy. Night! Love, Us.