The Beautiful Mess: 35 weeks and our first beach vacation!

This week we are at the beach! We have made 2 prior trips to the beach, both of which were for a weekend so I don't really count them as Cooper's first beach trip! :) This trip we are here for the whole week! Getting here wasn't easy either! Boy, were we glad to finally make it! I think my dad is going to start to expect that something will keep us from arriving at our family vacations on time! I'll get to that in just a moment though.....On Friday my sister came to stay with us and then ride down to the beach with us on Saturday. Friday was also Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A and at the last minute, we decided to partake in the fun! It started with Coop's Cow onesie and went form there....Nicole, Cooper and I dressed as cows from "head to hoof" which entitled us to a free meal each. Since Coop doesn't really eat kids meals yet, the manager gave Carrington a free meal too! Free dinner....I'll take it! Check out our picture below!
ok, so now for the craziness of getting to our vacation.....Last year we were flying to Sanibel Island, FL for family vacation. Since my dad works for Delta we fly cheap....and standby! We made the first leg of the flight to Atlanta and then there was NO hope of us getting a flight out to FL that day and by then we were committed...we either had to figure out a way to get down there or back home...we couldn't just stay in the airport! Keep in mind...I was 20 weeks pregnant at the time and we spent HOURS upon HOURS walking aroudn the airport from one gate to another with hopes of getting a seat on a flight....not fun! We ended up renting a car and driving from Atlanta to Sanibel and arrived somewhere around 2 in the morning! about 14 hours later than we had planned!
This trip followed suit! We borrowed a vehicle from Carrington's parents so that we could put a bike rack on the back and fit all of the "required" items for a week at the beach with a baby. Carrington spent a good part of the day on Friday getting it prepared to go (inspection, tags, tires, etc etc) and Saturday he spent a good part of the day cleaning it up and finagling the bike rack to fit (for some reason it wouldn't' fit into the hitch easily so he really had to work at it). Around 1:00 or so we were on our way! We stopped at Arby's right before getting on the highway and as we headed down the road I realized that Carrington had gotten an extra sandwich that we didn't order or pay for. I told him it was his lucky day....and that's apparently as far as his luck would go! Just past Raleigh I heard the most frightening sound ever and Carrington quickly, and safely, got us off the road only to take a gander at the SHREDDED rear tire....yep....we were now stranded with a blown tire on the side of the road with a baby, a car FULL of beach gear, and 3 bikes on the back. Wonderful! :) We made a few phone calls, Carrington and Nicole dropped the spare tire, got the jack out and I assumed we would be on our way in half an hour, TOPS....wrong again.....the jack was broken! We made a few more phone calls and couldn't get anyone close by that was in town at the moment so we got out our beach chairs and settled in to our "camp" on the side of I-40 to wait for his parents to come....a good 3 hour wait! All the while, as we stood on the side of the highway with a baby (who was SUCH a trooper and was perfectly content and happy), no one stopped! we never saw a highway patrol officer go by or anything! Finally after about an hour and a half of sitting there, a kind soul stopped to help. He had seen us his first time by and then saw that we were still there much later and felt compelled to stop. Thank goodness he did because he had a jack and helped Carrington get the spare on! We were then able to drive to the next exit and find a shady spot (near a McDonald's so that we could get frozen strawberry lemonades since it was nearly 100 degrees!) and wait for his parents to arrive. One they arrived, they replaced a tire, we moved all of our stuff to their suburban, they took the land cruiser home and we continued on our way to the beach....5 hours later! We finally made it around 9:30 and have enjoyed the relaxing week so far! Yesterday we took the ferry over to Southport and walked around. It was a neat little town! We ate at a little hole in the wall where the locals eat and saw where they were filming the next Nicholas Sparks movie...Safe Haven. Cooper thoroughly enjoyed the Ferry ride! We have a couple more days here and plan to make the most of them!

at 35 weeks Cooper:

is working on high fives. We have been doing it non stop and he will slap your hand (not sure whether he really gets what he's doing yet or if he's just slapping it because it's up there) and we say "yay!!!" every time....he's very proud of himself when we do that!
is getting a little more predictable with his naps. I can almost plan on him taking a nap after he's been up for a couple hours (usually around 10:00) and then again sometime shortly after noon. I still have to make him lay still until he falls asleep (I usually rock him our bounce him) and he does pretty well with the morning nap. Afternoon naps are still a struggle. If he goes to sleep it's not usually for long (sometimes 10 minutes) and he's often a fussy mess about it! :)
LOVES oatmeal and bananas! We usually have that for breakfast; I'll fix him some oatmeal cereal and cut up some bananas into it and he gobbles it up! This week he has been eating like a little piglet! I don't know if it's because we're at the beach and he's so much more active and busy...thus hungrier, or is he's going through a growth spurt, or is I'm not producing enough milk for him and he's just feeling hungry often?!?!?!
is a master of grasping things (like his puffs or his banana pieces) but he just can't quite get the concept of getting it into his mouth. He would rather I hold it and he pull my hand to his mouth! little rascal!
is not too sure about the sand....he rolls it around in his fingers like he's not so sure what this gritty stuff is! :)
loves splashing and kicking the waves! We sat at the edge of the water for a while and he enjoyed splashing the waves as they came up to his feet....until we got a big one that scared him! He seemed to get over it quickly though and is definitely ok if we're holding him and dipping him down into the waves as they come up. He likes when we make him kick the waves and it makes a splash! :)
likes watching the seagulls fly by. I did have to inform him though that I will be the no-fun mommy who does not let him feed the gulls at the beach because we don't want to get pooped on! He does enjoy watching others feed them from a distance though! :)
has tried carrots and likes them! There's not much that this kid won't eat!
is finally getting the hang of holding his own sippy cut AND tipping it up enough to get water out of it. For a while he's been holding it and just gnawing on the spout, but now he's figured out that he has to tip it up to get anything
has GOT to be close to cutting a tooth....he gnaws HARD on everything, especially if it's cold! He's also started gnawing on his own fingers, which is new. They are constantly in his mouth so I'm thinking it feels good on his gums and perhaps something is about to break through.
is standing really well....and he can stand unassisted for a little bit (ok....it's a couple seconds but still!). When he does stand and hold on it's often just barely holding on enough to balance himself....I think we might be standing independently soon...maybe (Dare I say) even walking?!?!?! yikes, I don't think I'm ready for that!
is slightly attached to mama! not that I have a problem with that ;) but sometimes it would be nice if he would give me a break. He's especially clingy if he's hungry or tired!
knows what "no" and "uh-uh" mean. When he's getting into something he's not supposed to be and we say one of those things, he stops and looks at us...and usually stops and moves on to something else. we try not to say "no" to him too often because we certainly don't want a toddler that says "no" to everything...instead we will say "don't do such-and-such." Who knows if it will keep him from saying "no" to us later on, but it's worth a shot! :)
loves to bang on ANYthing he can! He especially loves to bang on his high chair tray, and he really likes it when I say "bring the bacon!" while he's banging on it....he grins really big every time!
is definitely in his throwing/dropping things stage! any and every thing he gets his hands on gets dropped from wherever he can! He usually gets 3 drops and pick ups and then it's done! :)

and now for some pictures....I apologize in advance....it's probably going to be a lot!

Cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-A (my cow ears are drooping a little! :))

Aunt Nicole dressed me in my clothes that a friend sent to me....she's silly and doesn't know what goes where! :)

me and my poppy at the beach!

playing in the sand with mommy and daddy (by the way I love the middle picture and how they are looking at each other!)

reading Nemo with daddy on the beach in my tent!

Aunt Nicole and I playing in the waves!

The beach life is a rough life! Daddy is trying to start me early on the Dew!

Family night at the boardwalk

My first ferry boat ride!

I have no idea what he was doing in this picture but it makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it! :)

Nicole got bombed by a gull on the ferry ride! A guy said it was because she was wearing that Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt and that if it had been a Tennessee Vols t-shirt she would have been safe....I kind of agree with him! ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Check back next week for the last couple days of our vacation and (I'm sure) more pictures!

**UPDATE**

My sister just pointed out that I never typed up the 34 week update....oops! Got too busy planning and packing for the beach that I forgot to do it! Here are the pictures anyway!