The Beautiful Mess: 36-37 weeks and so busy!

Whew, I feel like it's been forever since I've written...oh wait...it has! Let's see if I can remember everything that's happened in the last 2 weeks.
in Cooper's 36th week of life we rounded out our beach vacation and made it home with MUCH less excitement than our trip down to the beach! :) That week I worked a few days at the YMCA and we tried to recover from vacation. You know you're a parent when you come home from vacation and feel like you have to "recover" :) That week I also got my Jeep back! If you don't know the story of my beloved jeep, here's the short version....on the way home from the airport after our honeymoon the engine blew out (welcome back to reality, right!?!?). We had a used engine dropped into it and had it fixed....we drove it for about 6 months and, on our way to Atlanta to see my sister get baptized, it blew out again! and since then....it has been sitting! We haven't been able to bring ourselves to part with it, or spend the money to fix it again. This time Carrington and his dad took it to a specialist who solely does jeep engine rebuilds. They fixed it, with a warranty and all, and I had no idea it was even being done! It was actually ready the day before we left for the beach, but had no tags so we couldn't take it. It was a nice surprise to find that it was all better and ready to ride! :) we have since gotten it inspected and gotten tags and insurance on it and are up to 2 vehicles again!
In Cooper's 37th week of life the big event was going to the mountains for the day to celebrate Aunt Meg's birthday! We all headed up early in the morning with the intent to eat at Shatley Springs for breakfast. Those plans quickly changed when we found ourselves stranded on the side of the highway....out of gas. The fuel gauge is broken on the suburban that we were in and there was no way to tell how much fuel was left....apparently there was none! after a couple hour detour we were back on our way! We ended up eating at a place that had superb views of the mountains and a jazz trio playing while we ate! It was a lovely meal and Cooper enjoyed the musicians! We spent the rest of the day driving along the blue ridge parkway stopping here and there. We went to the viaduct, Price lake park, and (of course) blowing rock for some kilwins ice cream. Cooper was EXHAUSTED by the time we got halfway down the mountain and he his he breaking point! We ended up staying in Winston that night because I just couldn't put him back in the carseat to ride to Burlington after being in the car all day. I worked Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday afternoon we had Cooper's 8 month photo session. We got some really great photos! I'll share them with you as soon as I get them! :)

Since it's already almost time to do the 38 week post, I'll make a big list of what Cooper can do then, for now here are a few highlights of what he's doing at 36/37 weeks:

finally getting the puffs from my hand to his own hand and into his mouth! he has master the grab and feed himself, yay!
is walking behind his walker zebra! he's gone from crawling and pushing it, to walking and pushing it in a day's time!
has tried zucchini, and likes it!
still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth...and rubs his gums with everything! I keep thinking we are BOUND to see some pearly whites soon....but I'm perfectly fine with him waiting as long as he wants to pop those bad boys through!

and now for some pictures: