38 weeks and blessed beyond measure

Whew....WHAT A WEEK it has been in our family!  Let me just start by saying how amazed I am by God's protection over our family!  Monday night, as Carrington was heading home from soccer camp late at night, it started to rain terribly hard! within less than a mile he hydroplaned and lost control of the car.  he ended up spinning around multiple times, bouncing off the concrete median a couple times, and coming to a rest facing traffic in the middle of the highway!  He was able to quickly gather his wits and drive the car off to the side of the road and under a bridge to await help.  Now....he was traveling WITH traffic, ie...many other cars were around; he hit the concrete median but hit with the back end first so no airbags were deployed (which would have hurt him even more); he ended up facing traffic on a busy stretch of highway just beyond a blind curve and hill yet no cars came as he sat there, thus he wasn't hit head on; the car was drivable enough that he was able to move it from the highway to safety; his only injuries were a bruised shin from hitting the underside of the dash and some sore muscles; Cooper and I were not with him, which we, more often than not, usually are!  Now, tell me that God wasn't watching over him and I'll tell you you're crazy!  :)  While we now have a car to figure out how to fix, we are all still healthy and things could be so much worse! 
Tuesday Carrington stayed home with us to recover and regroup, and get some rest since he got home well after midnight.  It was so nice to spend a day together just the 3 of us (well 4 including Arnold).  It's definitely been a while since our schedules have allowed us a whole day together!
The rest of this week, since then, Cooper and i have hung out at home and it has been SO nice to actually feel like we live here again!  I forgot to mention last week that we met with our Realtor about selling our house, now it's that much closer to reality!  I have been, little by little, packing stuff into boxes as I get them so that the house looks more presentable and less "full."  It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate after 3 short years!  It's a little stressful and very exciting at the same time!  I can't wait to get back to Winston and be close to family and friends, and EVERYTHING we do, again! We've been looking at houses online a little , and might go look at a couple this weekend, but I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself.  I really hope we don't have trouble selling our house!  The sooner we get it listed, the sooner we can sell though!  :)


At 38 weeks Cooper

• loves pushing things along the floor...his train cars, a box, or any toy he has his hands on!
• "talks" non-stop!  the last couple of days he really acts like he's communicating something to me, I'm sure he thinks he is!  It mostly sounds like he's singing, it's too cute to listen to!
• plays so well on his own!  He definitely has him moments where he wants attention and wants me to play with him, but he also has those moments where he just sits on the floor and plays by himself.  Often those times result in the living room being covered with toys from one side to the other!
• knows how to open doors and drawers and doesn't hesitate to do so!  I was putting laundry away yesterday and he proceeded to open the drawers on Carrington's dresser and start pulling things out!  It's very hard to get things done with a little tornado following behind you!  :)  but he's learning and taking in so much right now, I don't mid letting him explore and learn new things even if it means more cleaning up and work for me!
• climbs on everything!  He has really gotten into playing with boxes (now that they are in our house more often) and he likes to climb up on them when they are upside down.  He's also learned how (well...he did it once) to climb up on the ottoman!  We use it to block him into the living room so that he's not exploring the house all day long and yesterday he lifted that little knee until he had it high enough to pull himself up on the ottoman and was on his way over the other side when I grabbed him!  yikes!
• walks along holding onto things all the time now!  he is a pro at holding onto the couch and walking along it to get where he wants to!
• loves walking with his zebra toy at grandma's house!  He's definitely gotten that things figured out!
• is ina  pretty regular nap routine now.  I can usually guarantee that he'll take a nap a couple/few hours after he gets up...usually around 10 or so, and then again in the afternoon, usually around 1 or 2.  Usually those naps are at least an hour and on the rare occasion, they are 2 hours or more!  i love those times because I can get a lot done and he's in such a good mood when he gets up!
• is such a smart little cookie!  I know, I'm probably biased...but still!  My mom has a little toy that is a monkey with 3 little bongo drums.  There are 3 little balls that you push down into the top of the drum and it comes out the front and makes music when you push it in.  it took him NO time at all to watch me do and figure out what he was supposed to do!  now i can get that toy out and give him a ball and he crawls right over and pushes it down in, then waits for it to come back out and does it again!  it's so fun to watch him because I can really see him thinking about it and knowing what happens next!
• has started to rub his hair when he's nursing again.  He did this as a tiny baby and is starting to do it again....it's cute as long as he doesn't rub his hair out again!  :)
• is pretty tough unless he's really hurt.   He falls all the time but usually bounces right back up!
• does not miss a thing!  he now knows how to open doors...he can't reach the handle but he knows that's how it happens!  One afternoon he stood at the front door and reeeeeached as high as he could trying to grab the doorknob!  little booger!
• loves apples and cinnamon!  I have started to season some of his foods a little bit and started with cinnamon.  We have put it in his apples and he can't get enough!  I also put some in the last batch of sweet potatoes I made but he hasn't tried them yet, I'm sure he will love it though!
• throws the ball for the dog!  he definitely understands how dogs play and usually tries to share his toys with the dogs by holding them up to their mouth.  He also knows which ball is his and which belongs to Tucker.  He has seen us throw the ball for Tucker so many times and LOVES it so much that now he has tried to throw the ball himself....it only goes a couple feet but it's cute to see him try to play with Tucker.  When Tucker brings it back he will ever so gently reach to his mouth to get the ball back from him and Tucker does so well to be so gentle with Cooper!
• is always moving and investigating things and trying to figure them out.  i love to see the little wheels turning as he tries to figure out how something is working!
• has started to love on Arnold by leaning his head into him....I think it's because he sees me love on Arnold that way  :)  he also likes to try to kiss the dogs, which is fine except that his kisses are wide open mouth kisses....kinda yucky on a dog!  :)

and now for some pictures:

he was so excited about finding the soccer ball in his toy bin!

Teaching Arnold how to play soccer

he's going to kill me for the some day but it's too funny!  Whenever his diaper comes off he flips over and bee lines it out of there!  This particular day he was getting ready to get his clothes changed as well  and as soon as he was naked h made a break for the toy box and  just looked so cute standing there...naked....looking for a toy to play with!  Look at his little foot propped up!  haha!

always climbing on something!

it's ok mom....I'm too cute to get mad at!