A Very Budgie Christmas!

A rare photo of the elusive Eva Claus!

Yes, Eva got a pony...thanks Grammy & Poppy!

Cuddling with her new "Baby Nurse" doll...

Eva LOVED her first snowman. Apparently he left town during last night's rainstorm and will come back soon. That's our story & we're sticking to it!

Eventually, she found her way to the tree!

Eva Feelin' Keene

In mid-December, Eva decided it was time to visit Jessica & Jeremey at their new home in Keene, NH. And what an awesome home it is! We had fun constructing an avante-garde Xmas tree, drinking the world's best hot chocolate, and generally carousing...

We drove through quite an ice storm to get to Keene...it was like this for hundreds of square miles. Beautiful...but quite deadly.

Eva enjoying tree time with Jessica & Jeremy


After de-icing the swings, Eva was cleared for take off.


What is all this cold stuff???

Eva is Weird...

...and we can prove it:

A Norcal Thanksgiving

We then completed our Tour de California (er, or at least de the greater Bay Area) in Redwood City with Grandma and the rest of the K. family. Eva was delighted to discover far more toys at Grandma's house than she has at home! In addition to several parties (including Great-Grandpa's 80th birthday and the T-Giving feast) we also found time for exploring Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay, Moss Beach and the tide pools, the San Jose Childrens Discovery Museum, and the local playgound at Stafford Park.

Eva was delighted with her new horse (an exact replica of Mama's horsie when she was E.'s size!)

Turkey meatball? Pleeeease?

Someone enjoyed her Thanksgiving meal so much, she decided to wear it (so unlike her!).

Happy times with the bis-abuelos

Mom! Take a look at these crazy creatures!

The question is: how much sand can I get in my mouth before mama notices?

Exploring the Moss Beach tide pools

Seriously - take a look at this tushie! Admire this tushie!

Having way too much fun at the Childrens Discovery Museum

Enjoying a sunny California December day at the park with Great-Aunt Julie

Eva tolerated about 60 seconds in this outfit - just long enough to snap a pic of our cute holiday elf!

A More than Pleasant Time in Pleasanton!

For the first part of our holiday trip out to California, we spent several days with Grandpa P-M and the fam at their new place in Pleasanton. Eva had a great time getting to know her aunts and uncles (she found Uncle Shayn's hair particularly fascinating) though toward the end of our time together started to feel a little competitive over possession of Aunt Sofia's toys!

Someone enjoyed her black beans a little more than was socially appropriate.

Magic baby!

Eva was dubiously approving of Lilo (or was it Stitch?) the chinchilla.

Who loves slides? Particularly slides too windy and steep for a 12-month-old to safely enjoy?

Swing time!

Officially a toddler

First of all - sorry for the delay in posting! Life gets a little chaotic sometimes, y'know?

A few weeks back, our very own babe became a toddler in all senses of the word - both by passing the 1-year-on-earth (ex utero) mark, and by figuring out how to, well, toddle all. over. the. place. We celebrated with - what else - a baby party! Much good cheer and cake was plastered on the faces of Eva's guests, as well as into the carpet, floor, furniture... you get the idea.

Then, to add to the birthday surprises, Jenna and Tarleton came into town for a surprise visit with their main man, Jonas, who seems to have (possibly overnight? no?) exited toddler-hood himself, moving straight into boy-hood! Whoa! Funny how these changes just keep coming...

Great party and all...but where's the cake?

Happy birthday baby with frosting in hair and turkey meatball in hand

Jenna, Tarleton and Jonas joining us for a stroll in downtown Boston

Making friends with the starfish at the New England Aquarium

Guess who put daddy's hat on all by herself?

Happy Halloween!

In the last week, we celebrated Eva's first Halloween, as well as a little early B-day celebration with Grammy and Poppy I., who were in town visiting E.'s new home. We misplaced the baby during the Halloween festivities, but a large ladybug flew in and kept us company until she decided to re-emerge.

A Bruin in training. (and no, this wasn't Halloween!)

Look what the lobster boat brought in - freshly caught baby!

Mama is now more used to this sight than she used to be...and she can't help that Eva LOVES it, every time.

Watch out, seagulls! You're on notice!

Slinky, slinky - fun for a girl, a boy, or a ladybug.

Trick or treating (an admittedly limiting outing for our first year out)

Early birthday cake - guess who ended up with a blue tongue afterwards?

A day at the beach with Grammy & Poppy.

One (+ a few) small step(s) for babykind...

So, how long from this point to running laps throughout the house? We're up to 12 hands-free steps so far...

(Sorry about the sideways view!)

Eva at 11 months

Eva just had the best time getting to know her great-grandparents, Gordon and Betty, during their visit out from California. We spent time visiting Boston, riding the T, exploring Winthrop and Malden, and discovering a certain tiny Italian restaurant that we will definitely be frequenting in the future.

Sporting her sassy new chapeau from G-Grandma Kibbe.

"Garcon!"

Eva decided she enjoyed playing inside boxes so much during the move, we can't stop her! Here, she found a mostly-full diaper box and decided this would be her new play space - er, office - for at least, oh, 20 minutes or so.

"I told you to hold my calls!"

The leaves are starting to turn...time to pull out the puffy jackets!

"Where's the moose??" (I suppose you had to be there. Though, even if you were, you still might not get it...unless you're Eva, of course, who thought this was HIGHlarious!)

Taking a stroll on the new Rose F. Kennedy Greenway (former site of I-93) opening celebration.

Showing off all those new choppers.

La Casa de Eva

Okay, so we've been a bit remiss in posting pics of the new digs. While it's a bit embarrassing to admit, we never quite got around to taking pictures ourselves, so we're going to borrow the pics taken by Gordon (Eva's "bis-abuelo") this past weekend during their wonderful trip out to visit. (Maybe we'll even - eventually - get around to posting pics of the inside someday!)

Street-level view (including the driveway of death - at least to bumpers and fenders. Jetta still isn't speaking to Cat.)

A view of our backyard, including parking, shed, and grass (with Eva's sandbox in the distance!) - taken from the back of the house.

Another shot of the house - from the back this time. As you can probably tell from this and the other shots, there are few particular overly friendly trees in our yard...the professional tree trimmers are paying us a visit tomorrow, to the relief of our roof!

Eva the Wheelie Queen

Turns out Eva LOVES wearing a helmet...who knew? Today was her first-ever bike ride...we took her to "Hub on Wheels", a big charity ride that shuts down most of Boston for a few hours. Eva had a great view of the Charles River, Storrow Drive, and all the Boston landmarks...she was laughing and yelling for 9 of the 10 miles before passing out in her seat.

With Mama in her "Ibert" bike seat.

Eva would yell "Yeah yeah!" before every downhill


Relaxing downtown...

Post-race potassium.

And sometimes after a hard day on the bike, you just have to drive yourself home...

Speaking of home, this is Eva's favorite porch pastime!