Faces

Happy face

Nose Picker

You need to know 2 things about this video. The first is that she starts out saying "no cheese" because she didn't want her picture taken. The second is that she ends by saying "that's better." Everything else is self explanatory.

P.S. Let me know if you can't see this video. I really have no clue what I'm doing with this whole fancy video blogging thing. Sometimes technology escapes me.

On your second birthday

I actually wrote this post on Coco's birthday, but didn't get around to adding pictures to it until today. Better late than never!

Dear Cora,

Today was your second birthday. I can't believe that my chubby little baby is now a strong-willed toddler, very opinionated yet still full of love and hugs. In the past year you have really become your own person, and I am so proud of the little girl you are.

Newborn Coco

Rhys Jester Nichols

After 57 hours of labor, Rhys Jester Nichols was born on July 12 at 3:50pm, weighing 6 Lb. 14 oz. and measuring 20" long. Baby and Mama are in perfect health and Cora's very first act with baby brother was to try to tickle him! Here are a few pics of our first moments with our new son.

Moving day come and gone

Updates first: We have the house mostly under control. We still have some unpacking and setting up to do, but there are always those few little things that get forgotten or aren't pressing so get put off until later. But we are in a fully livable set up now, and we are really happy with the place. 

My phone interview on Friday went really well! So well that they called and asked me to come in for an in person interview on next Monday! I'm excited because I think it would be a great job, but a bit worried that they will want someone to start immediately. And I'm 8 months pregnant. Starting immediately would be kind of a waste of time. All I can do is hope they like me enough to wait for me to be ready to start!

Now, on to the trip from Louisiana to North Carolina!

We got the moving truck all loaded up over a weekend and spent the next few nights sleeping on air mattresses. Mom came in to help us with Co4q while we packed and to help share the driving burden. She was great! Mom (Nana, as the grandkids call her) and Coco went to the park and played while we did most of the truck loading, freeing up our hands and keeping Coco from needing to be held or right by our sides every minute. 

On Monday we headed out! Mom, Cora, the cat and I loaded into my car with all the little things that we couldn't cram into the moving truck (that thing was packed tighter than, well, I dunno, something else packed really tight). Geoff and the dog hopped in the truck, and we were on our way!

Cora was great for both days of the drive. Oh, we had a few cranky moments, and naps were either short or non-existent, but with the help of the iPad (a generous parting gift from my boss) and some movies, most of the time was pleasantly passed like this:

I was a bit more worried about how Soup would do. He's usually really great on car rides, but he's never ridden with Cora before. Fortunately he did great as well, and spent most of his time sleeping in the floor.

We all took some naps in the car. Sadly for Geoff, Clark wasn't much help with the driving, since he lacks opposable thumbs and can't reach the pedals. Also, he's a dog.

Cora wanted to help out, but there were some obvious issues with this. First and foremost, she was just too cute to be behind the wheel for long.

So GP wound up driving the entire way all by his lonesome. We had walkie talkies to keep in touch and made lots of stops (hello, 8 months pregnant here!) so sleepiness never became an issue for him. For us gals, yes.

We stopped just past Atlanta for the night and started out around 10:00 the next morning. The majority of the driving was behind us, and we were looking forward to being really home by the early evening. Things went smoothly up until the last hour or so, when Cora realized she'd been strapped in a car for 2 days and decided watching Movie Puppies (101 Dalmations, which we watched about 3 times) was no longer cutting it. In a last ditch effort to keep her happy and Mom and me sane, I let her play with my hair. 

It may have hurt some, and definitely needed brushing, but it beat listening to a screaming 22 month old for an hour!

Finally, we arrived, got out of the car, assessed the place, and ordered pizza. We got Cora off to bed and were about to crash ourselves when we noticed the roach infestation. Which is a story for another day.