It's Been a LONG Week

I wrote the on Friday, but for some reason it didn't post!

It's hard to believe that two weeks ago tonight we were meeting with Steven's birthmother and praying that she would choose us to raise her son. Now we're nearing the end of our second week with him, and it's hard to remember what it was like without him!

Some highlights from this week:

1. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my parents. We always go to the Christmas Eve service, which closes with a candle light time. Each year my dad lights his candle first, then my mom, sisters, Mark, and I light ours of his, and then we go around the auditorium and light everyone else's. This year I carried Steven with me, and it was so neat to have him be a part of that tradition.

After the service, we always go to my parents' house and watch a Christmas movie (Elf this year) and have pizza and shrimp (and a few other things). After that we open our stockings, which haven't actually been in stockings for a really long time. Each of us buys a stocking stuffer for everyone else, so it is fun to see what everyone comes up with. After that, we open the rest of our gifts so we can sleep in on Christmas day! (And so we look nice in the pictures instead of looking like we just woke up, according to my mom.)

The best gift this year was an ornament my dad gave to Steven. He went to five stores before finding one with a little black baby on it, and when he went to get Steven's name put on it, the girl asked him it he would rather a boy one instead of the girl one he had :) He was just so excited to find a little black one that nothing else mattered I guess!

2. Mark's parents and sister Beth came out to meet Steven on Wednesday, and they seemed to enjoy their time together. They left this morning, so it was a quick trip, but they were happy to meet their new grandson.

3. We bought Steven's stroller and car seat yesterday. I'm excited to have that done, even though I still have to finish putting together the stroller. I stopped when it called for a hammer. I will be even more excited when it is no longer in the middle of our living room!

4. We had our first heart stopping experience as parents last night. Around 5:00 this morning, Steven let out the worst scream/shriek I've ever heard. I grabbed him out of his bassinet because it was obvious something was wrong. He was bright red (which says a lot when he's a black baby) and would really calm down. We were afraid that he had choked or had his mouth/nose covered or something, so I didn't want to put him back down. Eventually, we figured out that it was gas, so we did what we could, which wasn't much, and then tried to settle him down. He finally wore himself out about TWO HOURS later. Poor little guy. Today a friend gave us some gas drops to try. I don't want to have another night like last night!

5. To top the week off, Mark came home sick from work today. I could probably count on one hand the number of times Mark has missed work because he was sick, so this is not good at all. I had him take the night time formula several hours ago even though he said that he should take the daytime one to be able to help out with Steven tonight. That was sweet, but I know that he needs to rest. That doesn't mean that I'm looking forward to doing all of the feedings tonight though!

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow. Posting now would involve my getting up and tracking down the camera, flash drive, adapter, etc. I'm way too tired for that!