Nieces are Nice.

Last weekend DH invited his brother and sister-in-law over with our two nieces, ages 3 years and 15 months. For one, I was surprised that DH made the invite......I figured he was either losing his mind, or not truly sure what he was in for.....or a little of both. While I was so excited to see our wonderful nieces, I was also slightly panic-stricken, thinking that this lone visit could make or break DH's desire to have children any time soon. Not only is one of the girls in the very active 3-year age group, but the other is still very young, and still does not always sleep through the night.

In my worst-case-scenario, I envisioned 3-y.o. running around like crazy, with more energy than all of us combined, and the baby being upset about being in a new place and crying nonstop. Not that I would have minded, but I thought that scenario would most certainly put the kibosh on any child-bearing in my near future. In my best-case-scenario, both of the girls were total angels.....and then DH would not have any realistic picture at all about children and would be in for a very rude awakening. I was hoping that the weekend would pan out somewhere right in the middle of both scenarios.....and it did. It was awesome!

We had some great quality time with the girls, both of whom gave uncle J lots of love. The baby who is notorious for not wanting to be held, snuggled right into DH's arms without so much as a squirm, and DH was loving it. Our older niece spent much of the time with me, making brownies, coloring, playing dress-up, and watching movies. I think DH was pleased to see that I could handle it. The baby cried at night, but not for long, and the 3-y.o. loved her play time, but was well-behaved enough that there wasn't a temper tantrum all weekend. Honestly, it was fabulous.

After they all left DH and I settled onto the couch to relax, and both agreed that while we were exhausted, we loved every minute of it. It was a little glimpse into our future, and now I know that it is our near future. While DH's job officially ends due to layoff next Friday, we are hoping and praying that something else comes along very soon. But now we have additional reasons for this hope.......because once something does come along, we will be trying to begin our family. I CAN't WAIT!