We Survived...

Well, it was my first week at home alone with both boys (with Brandon working and without the help of my mom) and we survived! I'm not going to lie: It was rough and humbling, but I know that the day will come when Jax is getting married and Gabe is graduating from college when I will miss these crazy, sometimes stressful days with a toddler and a newborn. Anyway, here is how our week went:

Mirror selfie with my little shadow before heading out for a girl's night!

~On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to get out of the house (with baby in tow) to attend a friend's birthday at a local sip and paint parlor. It was a much needed couple of hours of adult time, laughing with friends, and painting some hideous trees (above -- I'm so not an artist and plan to give my canvas to my brother as a joke for Christmas) -- and Gabe slept like a little angel a majority of the time!

~No pictures, but on Sunday I packed up the boys and we drove into Denver proper to visit my aunt and uncle, and to do a lot of Christmas shopping!

~On Monday, the boys and I walked to the park for what is our last solo park trip for awhile... Gabe was on his last day of amoxicillin and was hating life the entire time :(

~I started telling Jax at 10 am on Monday that we were going to walk to the park and he was so excited, but we didn't actually make it out the door until about 2 pm (due to Gabey not feeling fell and just wanting to nurse)... He was SO good and patient while he waited and would ask "park?" every so often and go back to doing whatever it was he was doing in the playroom whenever I said we'll go in a bit... Anyway, we both needed out of the house that night so I took him to Safeway with me and surprised him with a cafe pop from their Starbucks, which he thought was the greatest thing ever. 

~This kid... I decided that after Monday, we would just lay low the rest of the week and stay home, so on Tuesday we wrapped and decorated some Christmas gifts, played outside, and watched A LOT of Fixer Upper, which is his new favorite thing. Here he is browsing through my very worn copy of HGTV Magazine, which he keeps asking me to read to him. 

~On Wednesday, we laid low again, watched more Fixer Upper, and had my friend Sondra and her three kids over for a bit to play that afternoon.

~Thursday was the first snow of the season (YAY!) and I took Gabe with me to mom's group at church while Jax stayed home with dad to sand down trim and watch Fixer Upper. I needed to get a bible personalized for my goddaughter's First Communion gift, so I took Jax with me to the Family Christian Bookstore that afternoon and guess what he found immediately and clutched on to the rest of the trip? (I ended up buying it so I could read it... he has already made me read the captions on the 4 pages of pictures to him about thirty different times!)

~Can you believe this little chunk STILL has an ear infection D: I took him to have his ear rechecked on Friday and lo and behold, still infected after 10 days of stomach destroying amoxicillin (but she said it did look better than it had two weeks before)... Before putting him on an even stronger and more potent antibiotic, she said we could try just keeping his nasal passage really clear, keep him elevated, and steamed up to see if that would help the ear drain on its own, but if it doesn't in a week, he has to start the new meds. Please pray this sweet Buddha baby is 100% again by next Friday!!

The good news from his appointment? Gabe isn't even a month and has already gained almost 3 lbs. (up to 9 lbs. 5 oz.) since he was born, which doesn't surprise me one bit... this kid likes to nurse!