My painting buddy

Once upon a time me and my sister's bff painted our foyer downstairs and upstairs a beautiful light blue. It was so pretty. Fastforward over a year, and I am still in love with this color. Only now it is interspersed in places (on the walls going up the stairs specifically) with scuffs marks and cute little finger smudges. Back to the drawing board.  SO, I decided to leave everything light blue except the wall going up the stairs. That was the worst. (We won't talk about the wall upstairs along the landing that bears evidence of crayon, marker, and dirt. I'm just not ready to tackle that yet.) 

At this point in time I need to praise my hubby. He told me last week that I could decorate (including paint) the house as I so please. Isn't that great!? I just love him to pieces.

SO, he is in England a few days this week. And that was one of my projects for while he was gone. So I trotted off to the store, and picked me out some paint. Only this paint is a COMPLETELY different color (much darker) on the wall, than the little paint sample at the store. Remind me to sue. But I actually like it. It has turned into a luscious wall of chocolate - contrasting nicely to the light blue on the other walls. 

SO. (again. I use that word too much.) Yesterday during Olivia's nap I was painting away, and Mr. Martin Pants came into the room and began BEGGING me to allow him to help. I was on the verge of saying no. And then I decided that this would be my "I'm a good Mama" moment of the day. So I said yes. (Wish you could have seen his eyes light up and his big grin.) So I showed him how to use the little roller brush, and he went to town. Well, then I felt kind of stupid. And guilty. Because he did a REALLY good job. This is not just biased. He rolled paint on those walls for over an hour (until there was no wall left that he could safely reach.) I thought I would have to go along behind him to cover up patches peeking through, but he noticed them on his own, and took care of them. Wow. So he did down low, and I did up high, and from now on he is my painting buddy. 

Hope his Papa likes it, and does not revoke his permission to "have at" the house. Grin. But chocolate is his favorite food, so I'm not too worried.

This was the constant state of his tongue those 2 hrs. How cute is that!?

I'll post "after" pictures when the masking tape is gone and it's a little cleaned up.

OH! I almost forgot. He said some cute things while we were painting. I've forgotten some of them, but here are two one I remember.

When I saw how good Martin was painting I told him: "Wow Martin. I'm glad I let you help me. You are doing a really good job! I didn't know you could paint like that." Every 10 minutes or so the rest of the hour he would pause to inspect his work and say "Wow! I didn't know I could paint so good Mama!" Grin.


Martin: "Mama, you know my Geheimnis (secret)?"
Me: "No. I don't think so."
Martin: "Du kannst das niemandem sagen. Das ist ein Geheimnis. Das heisst keiner weisst es." (You can't tell anyone. That is a secret. It means no one knows."
Me: "OK". And yes, my mind was furiously trying to justify telling the secret to the WORLD even though I had just promised the opposite.
Martin: Proceeds to tell me the secret - which involved his bike actually being some other being. But my conscience won't let me divulge the actual "Geheimnis".
Me:"Wow. I did not know that!"
Martin: "Ja. Das ist mein Geheimnis. Das darfst du Olivia nicht sagen". (Yes. That is my secret. You are not allowed to tell Olivia that.)
Me: "OK"
Martin: "Du darfst das Papa auch nicht sagen." (You are not allowed to tell Papa that either.)
Me: Pause. (I was REALLY wanting to tell Christian).
Martin:"Versprichst du dass du das niemandem sagst?" (Do you promise that you won't tell anyone?)
Me: Pause. "OK. Yes. I promise."
Man, the kid leaves no loopholes. At this point he was satisfied that his ultimate secret was safe with me, and resumed his industrious painting.