ajmatt blog » california

Catching up: November

allegra — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:55:20 +0000

November was a great month. I could write ten entries about November and still have more to say. But now it’s snowing and I’m excited about Christmas, so I’ll write just one.

We started out with a trip to Northern California at the end of October to visit my mom’s side of the family. While we were there Eva met two great grandparents, five great aunts and uncles, and nine cousins (first, second, and then some). We took walks in the woods, drove on windy country roads, and made big pots of chili. It was a wonderful trip.

We have a whole gallery of pictures, but this is one of my favorites – Eva’s cousin Emma loved to read to Eva. And if you look carefully you’ll see this picture was taken on Halloween – Emma is not reading just to Eva, but to a baby flower.

Eva and I spend a lot of time running the Mt. Vernon Trail. We start at Gravelly Park, which is next door to National Airport, and often see planes that are about this far away. Eva is not convinced she likes this activity, but we keep going because the view is amazing. We have more airplane, foliage, and disgruntled baby pictures here.

We closed up our family garden plot for the year. Though it’s late in the game, I was able to freeze a ton of parsley and hung some oregano and thyme to dry in the basement. I wish I had been photo documenting all along – the garden plot produced huge quantities of vegetables this year, and I’ve been refining my food preservation skills.

And, of course, there’s the November gallery, which has the usual baby head shots to keep the West Coast grandparents up on Eva’s every development. Like the one at left, showing how well Eva can sit on her own.

I lied, there will be two November entries. I just can’t get Thanksgiving into a thumbnail and two sentences. Stay tuned!

Another four generation photo

allegra — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:13:26 +0000

I love generation photos – and by some miracle we’re all smiling in this one. You don’t know how unusual that is for this particular group.

I’m not sure when I’ll get through the other 413 (!) pictures from our trip to Northern California, as it’s NaNoWriMo time now, but I’ll post a few on the blog in the interim.

California: a very important playdate

allegra — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:58:08 +0000

I’ve been friends with Marissa since fourth grade – that’s twenty years as of right now. I can’t think very hard about that. We got pregnant around the same time – she was three months ahead of me – but since we’re both new moms, we haven’t been able to fly for months, and just got to see each other again for the first time in a year.

Isn’t Mitchell adorable?

Matt, Eva, and I had dinner at Tata’s that night. Just to prove that not everything was roses and smiles on this trip, there was a meltdown that night. I’m always stressed in the moment, but I love crying pictures.

Matt employed his special calming powers, and Eva rebounded in time for family photos.

This is such a classic example of first grandchild syndrome. Do you think a baby could get any more attention?

California: Cousins galore

allegra — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:44:30 +0000

Sunday was a great day. Matt spent most of the day reading his school book, but how hard is that when studying looks like this?

We spent time with Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) and Uncle Austin. Eva can only hope she inherited these eyes:

Eva had a great time meeting her cousins. By my count, she had nine cousins at my Aunt’s house at family dinner night – three of my first cousins, and six of their children (plus a seventh on the way). The whole collection looked something like this:

Finally, we had our first family swim. Eva was quiet the whole time we were in the water, looking around through her sunglasses and taking it all in, but I think she had a good time.

It was a beautiful day.

California: Four generations

allegra — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:00:20 +0000

Four generations of Mootharts with two Louises!

California: Eva’s first trip

allegra — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:46:16 +0000

We flew out to the LA area Labor Day weekend. It was Eva’s first trip and the first step toward our goal of having a travel baby. I think it went well – Eva hardly cried on the first flight, and didn’t cry at all on our return. She had a meltdown or two on the trip, mostly due to lack of sleep, but overall we couldn’t have asked for a better visit!

I’m going to be posting a few photos over the next few days. To start things off, these are from the day we arrived.

No big surprise here, but Matt and I got absolutely nothing done on the plane. We did get some short naps, which was nice.

I didn’t feel too dorky pulling out the camera on the plane – the guy in the row in from of us was taking pictures of everything around us, and he didn’t have a baby.

It’s Uncle Austin!

Eva was so excited to meet her Tata.

Looking back on it, I can’t believe we got up at 2:30 am Pacific time that day, and still managed to get through a whole day without a meltdown (from Eva or me). There are more pictures from our first day in the gallery.