Getting Ready To Be a Big Sister

After drinking her "greens 1st"

Big girl earrings
Practicing holding baby Jachin
Carrying her own purse to the movies, "my purse" she says
Spent a day in her crib with the front off...
Even flossing her teeth and her baby's teeth

For Aunt Carole - Eva saying "Kokolum"

A little Christmas Eve

Poppop - The best gift!

Well they say the joke is you buy a child an expensive toy and all they want to do is play with the box.

Out and About with Mommy

Eva and her best friend Gabriella

Eva pushing Gabriella's baby stroller and wearing a hat that is too small

She loves to drink the last of the milk from the cereal bowls

Story time at the Four Arts library (was Thanksgiving) we made mashed potatoes, yum!

On stage at Barnes and Noble in the Kid dept.

Stylin', yes we actually had a cold day here this winter.

Eva in the church Nursery watching a video

Chick fil-A fell in love with Eva and gave her a rose

She wanted to clean everything that day - the train, the coffee table, the floor...

Downtown at the Gardens

Eva and i went to a Mommy and Me class this week and got to ride a trolly for kids and see the Christmas bear with some of her little friends.

Mom in Town

Aimee here. My mom came into town for a quick trip for 4 days. We tried to cram a lot in that short period of time but it was fun and wonderful! She flew in on Tuesday night at PBI. We had originally planned to have me pick her up since Eva goes to bed around 7:30, but it worked out that Eva was awake and wired from having a long nap. When Eva saw my mom walking from the terminal I told her, "Go get her" and she did! Eva ran so excitedly to my mom and threw her arms around her.

The first couple of days where ever Kokolum (her nickname) went Eva wanted to be there too. "My Kokolum" she would say - knocking on the bathroom door and everything :). As soon as Eva woke up it was, "Hi. Mommy, Daddy, Kokolum?" Thursday and Friday were pretty rainy, but all went well. As our earlier post noted we went to Magic Kingdom, we wish Justin could have come, and had a magical time. We had a date night Friday so my mom could have a special night with Eva. On Saturday we did some Christmas shopping, had a yummy lunch at Cheesecake factory and a pre-Christmas gift exchange that night.

I love having my mom in town. I am never ready to see her go and always wish she could stay longer. She is a wonderful positive force in my life and her easy going attitude with the ability to still have good ideas and opinions makes her enjoyable to hang out with. The nice part about this trip is that we knew we could look forward to her next visit - which will be very soon after the baby is born. We love you Mommy! You're the best house guest!

Cuddle!

After Justin and I had put Eva to bed tonight and Justin had run out to do errands Eva began to cry. I came in to check on her - her baby doll on the floor and Eva trying to crawl out of her crib. She was trying to climb out and saying, "cuddle, cuddle, cuddle. Milk" How could I refuse her? So I took her in my room and we cuddled in the covers :).

We would be quiet for a while and then she would randomly start telling me all the things she was thinking about. She told me how to cross the street when we are out walking, "outside. Jogging - cars - Wait! Cross driveway. Careful! Careful!" Holding her finger up in an authoritative tone. Then she told me about safety in the kitchen. "Hot! No burn my finger. Cooking." Repeating herself several times in different ways. She also told me about how the train downstairs is shared with daddy and it rides on a track, "daddy share train. Railroad. No, no, tracks. Share with Daddy." Make-up application was in the mix and a talk about her getting her boogies out of her nose too. It was so wonderful. She was cuddled close to me and sometimes kept her legs propped up on my legs. Wonderful time!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas

Well my mom is in town and we girls went up to Disney! Her husband Larry was in Tampa visiting his daughter and grandson so we met up with them. It was a little stressful ride with the rain and timing, but once we were there Eva was so amazed by everything that it was worth it! She was excited to go on the "Train", the monorail, and seeing all the Christmas lights inside main street. Her eyes were filled with wonder and that expression never left her the rest of the night. We saw the castle pre-parade show, the parade, fireworks above our heads and got to go on several rides: Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Its a Small World, Dumbo and the carousel. Even though Eva was tired she was so content. Quite a few times when we got off a ride she would say, "Was fun! Was Fun! Yay!" We ate at one of the space restaurants and several Disney Characters came in and danced with the kids. Eva danced with Pluto and Goofy with Larry and my mom. It was so cute! At the end of the night to top it all off we got to see some of the snow! Eva really lit up when she felt it falling on her. By the time we left the park Eva was asleep in my arms. The only thing we missed out on was a churro and hot chocolate.

December Happenings

As it is for all of us, December is a busy month. Sorry for less updates, but here is what happened in our life in the past two weeks:

Eva read about practicing humility

She got to hang out with her friend Preston

She worked on her Cyclops impression from X-men

Aimee and I went to a Christmas party, and we ran into none other than Edward Cullen from Twilight!

Or, at least a cardboard cutout of him decked in holiday apparrel

Aimee surprised me with cookies. My family loves me :)

I know, I know, we shouldn't be doing this... It's just too cute though!

Finally, an Update!

Between a near-computer crash and the holidays, we've been busy. Thankfully we only lost our address book and pretty much all of our e-mail pre-November (please send us your e-mail addresses!) but we did not lose our pictures and videos of Eva!

Here are some fun photos from the blog hiatus:

What do you mean, "what are you doing?" Isn't it obvious?

Pretty toes

Daddy and Eva playing with the train under the tree

Playing in the fountain at the mall

I'm ready for Aspen Grandma Beth!!! Or at least, half-ready!!!

Check me out, I'm a ski maven and I don't even know what skiing is!!!

We went to the park...

Looking stylish on the jungle gym

Every night Daddy lets me tell him all the colors on the stained-glass lamp. There are so many!

Can you say no to this face???

Happy Holidays from the Honses!

Pardon of Lack of Postings

We are currently dealing with a computer crash... wish us luck! Hopefully we'll have more picture of Eva coming soon.

Honey

Lately Eva has been trying to say everything that I say. Its really cute when she tries to say whole sentences back to me. Very hard to translate :). I call her and Justin honey a lot, so now that is her favorite thing to call me. Yesterday she spilt some water on the floor. She stood over it, "oh, honey, honey" calling to me to look at her uh-oh. Here little friend Gabi was wanting attention from his mommy and was getting impatient and Eva's nurturing side came out, "Oh, honey. Aw hold on honey aw. Hold on." This morning she called to Daddy to come down stairs, "HONEY!"

Today we had some food for the ducks. Eva picked up and said, "Feed the ducks" and walked to the door. She is wonderful. I love her little voice and all the fun things she says and tries to say :).

Favorite Song

The past week or two Eva has become addicted to a song. Whenever we are in the car she has to be listening to it constantly. She knows what track it is! I put in Fleet Foxes for her thinking she would like the harmonies. The next time we were in the car she kept saying, "two! Two!" I had no idea what she was talking about. "Again! Again!" Trying different things I finally got to the song she wanted. Now she tries to request the song by singing the part of the song she likes, "eee-i. eee-i." She sings several words from the song, "summer...fall...snow...". Check it out! The video is really cool too. Its not very long.

Tonight Justin and I needed to listen to something else. We put on a different song and she just yearned for her song, so after ours was done we put it on and the first thing she said was, "Better. Yeah."

Trick or Treat!!!

Justin here. When I think of Halloween as a kid, I remember compromising (or integrating) your cold weather clothes into your costume. In Pennsylvania it's typically a brisk 40-50 degrees on an October evening, but you didn't care because you were having fun.

Florida is different. And when you are taking a little one such as Eva, you should really go trick-or-treating while it is still light out, so we did. Unfortunately that also meant it was still about 85 degrees outside at 5 PM. And we were wearing costumes. Yeah, it's been a little warm this year.

Aimee dressed as the "bun in the oven", and as you can see, I was the bun maker.

We initially thought we were going with a small group of friends....

Look at them run!

Hurry up and wait!

Eva was an American Idol contestant. She totally won.

Eva can't wait for the candy. Daddy can't wait to get out of this costume and rest this evening!