And that's how he became the manny

Time for a new picture of these guys!
Taken two years ago before Cody left for his mission. 

I don't think I've told a lot of you yet that we've had an addition to our family recently! Nope, no baby yet (thank goodness, we are so not ready!), but we have acquired a 21 year-old man. Nick's little brother Cody just got back from serving a mission for our church, and is staying with us while he finds his feet (and a job and an apartment) and starts college.

A lot of people have questioned our sanity at having someone come and stay longterm with us just as we're expecting a baby, and we have admittedly occasionally been among them. But as we near the two-week mark, I have to say that this situation has some pretty clear perks. Shall we do a list? Oh, go on, then:

1. Cody is more than a decade younger than either of us, and infinitely less pregnant, so he is basically always willing and able to help out. Basically, if I ask, he will do it. I'm trying hard not to take advantage of this fact. 
2. He asks for ways to help out every single day. Which means that he does the dishes, vacuums, mops the floor, keeps his bathroom (shared with Espen) clean and takes out the trash on a regular basis. 
3. Having Cody take care of a lot of those day-to-day things that have been just about killing me (like vacuuming), leaves me with time and energy to do other things, like spend time with Espen, cook some non-awful dinners or work on other things around the house that need doing, but typically get ignored while I take care of the day-to-day. 
4. We've also assigned him a dinner night, which meant that last Thursday I got to sit quietly and ready my book while Espen drove cars up and down my legs and Cody cooked dinner in the kitchen. All I had to do was occasionally tell him where to find something. And we're going to do it every week! 
5. Espen loves his uncle Cody, and Cody seems to be blessed with infinite patience of the variety where he's almost always willing to play cars, wrestle and generally pay attention to Espen. 
6. He will often keep an eye on Espen while I take a shower or run an errand, which allows me to have my head to myself for a few minutes, and Espen doesn't end up being glued to the iPad. 
7. When I go grocery shopping with Espen, Cody either comes with us to drive the cart and lift the heavy stuff, or he comes out to help me carry the groceries when I get home. As I enter my 8th month of pregnancy and get out of breath walking up the stairs, you just can't put a price on that kind of thing. 
8. And he babysits! On Friday Nick and I went on a really real date to dinner and a concert, safe in the knowledge that Espen was with someone we all love and trust, and who even knows how to put him to bed the "right" way. Things like that mean so much to us right now, because we know  that once the baby gets here, date night will be Netflix and takeout for the foreseeable future. 
9. Nick gets someone to play with too! I'm happy for them to play video games, go to movies and go hiking together, because it let's me curl up with a book or my knitting, which is all I want to do right now. Just because his wife is pretty boring right now, Nick doesn't have to be bored because he has a little brother to play with. 
10. And finally, there is just something reassuring about having another adult around as we enter the last six weeks of pregnancy. I'm really, really, really hoping that things will stay uneventful, and we won't enter into sitcom territory, but having another adult around significantly lessens the odds of me and Espen entering into any type of labor situations on our own. It's like having an insurance policy that you really don't want to have to use. 

This situation won't last forever, and that's probably a good thing all around. Eventually we're going to need Cody's room to be kid's room, and eventually Cody's going to want to live around other college students, but for now, we're all enjoying the benefits that this situation brings.