Is there anyting better than a sunny day at the beach ?
Tomás is very happy his friend Nico came to visit.

Fruitful

Apple, avacado, lemon, tomato, cherry, plum, basil... thats a backyard full! In the next few weeks we are putting in a peach tree... the climate here is incredible, you can just about grow anything.

Depending on when you visit, almost sure we will have something fresh for you!

California cherries! Turns out the old cherry tree in the back yard managed to give us some fruit... Tomás loved them although he kept calling them 'Uva' which is grape in Portugese. Close enough we thought.

Look at this big boy!

Denim

Somehow Tomás has taken over the guest room, its sort of turning into a combo mama's office, artroom, and playroom. Will be interesting for Grandma's next visit.

Do they make wetsuits my size?

Hey this is easy... lets put another pair of straps on this thing and hit it!

This is going to put some serious pressure on Pops to spring for a wetsuit...

Heading to the pool for some waterwork...

More and more the little boy is showing up... if you want to see the baby, its not going to last much longer.

Beach bum!!

Two beaches in one week... Santa Cruz, CA with Papai...

Then is off to Brazil to visit w/ familia, and priaya com Mamai!

One year ago today...

Its hard to believe that one year has passed by already.

I feel incredibly lucky to have such a beautiful wife and wonderful son. Today is a good day.

Oregon

Well, we made it over to Seaside... lots of snow along the way (much to Emilia and Ana's delight). Tomas really had a fun time exploring, anyone who has been to the Teeple house knows there are plenty of things to see.

Big THANK YOU to Grandma Kathleen for organizing a party for us... got to see lots of relatives and old friends. Really was a lot of fun!







On our way out of town we stopped by Cannon Beach and saw some Elk really close up... these ladies weren't very concerned about us pulling up and taking a few photos... well, its 11:07PM new years eve... hope you all had a great 2007, see you in 2008!

Santa in Santa Cruz...

Christmas in Oregon

Finally, my first Christmas!! Here's Grandma Nancy and I in front of the tree, so many interesting things that I'm not supposed to touch... speaking of decorations, my aunt Joy and uncle John got stuck in Portland because of the big snow storm, I was looking forward to showing them my new walking skills.

Speaking of snow... checkout the fun pictures from Mt. Hood, this is my Mom and Vovo having some fun.
Thats it for now, we are leaving soon to drive over to Seaside to visit the Teeple family... hope you all are having a great holiday!

Catching up w/ the Teeples...

Days are rushing by... Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas. Of course we were among the first to get our tree up and decorated... thanks to Mom and Grandma it looks fantastic!

Working on the suntan here in sunny Santa Cruz!

Life in the 8-3-1

Watch out... the new guy has a bit of a lead foot.

Pumpkin Patch

Had a little bit of a tough time getting a smile out of Tomás at the pumpkin patch last night... he has two new teeth on the bottom row that decided to poke thru just yesterday...





Unfortunately for Tomás, I think pumpkins aren't the best teething toys.

I'm back!

Sorry its been a while since I was able to write last time... I've been very, very busy. For starters, growing all these teeth was no small task...

Here are me and my cat, Samba... for some reason she doesn't like to play as much as I do...

Lately I've really been getting into recycling.

Summertime fun...

Went for spin around the neighborhood... papa drove, mama ran wing.

I like my new swing.

Whoever put carrots on the menu thank you!!!

Chicklets

Somewhere in one of the baby books I read there was a reason for the constant drool... teeth!! Tomás is in the 90th percentile in all his meaurements (just had our 6 mth doctor's appt this week) and is doing great.

Of course each day seems to bring a new 'first'... first time on an airplane... first time sitting in the grass... first time in the swimming pool...

Settling in (sort of)

For only being here a few weeks, we are really getting the hang of the Santa Cruz lifestyle. The weather is just incredible (mid to high 70's every day) and lots of interesting activities... the obvious ones for me are windsurfing and surfing... here is a snapshot of Tomás putting his feet on a windsurf board for the first time. The way things are going in windsports I suspect he'll be more interested in kiteboarding by the time he's ready to hit the water.

The area where we live (Seabright) is right in the middle of Santa Cruz, so we can easily access both east and westside. There is a really nice little cafe with outdoor tables that has been a recent favorite of ours to walk down and get morning coffee on the weekends. This snapshot is from yesterday morning with nice bright morning sunlight.

Reflections on Father's Day...

My first father's day. Not sure exactly why, but the day doesn't seem to have the same level of gravity as Mother's day. Maybe has to do with the number of nightime feedings that I'm responsible for... or maybe the number of messy diapers I change on a daily basis... who knows. Either way, I can take what I can get these days.

Tomás is doing great, growing and continuing to hit developmental milestones. Probably the biggest single change is in his overall awareness of people and what is happening around him. Certain things especially capture his interest, specific colors, kids, any type of moving water, etc., and its really fun to watch him check things out. One thing that is perhaps one of my favorite things about Tomás is how generous he is with smiles... almost any time of day if you give him a big smile, you will get a big tooth-less grin in return... this photo was from this morning, my first Father's day.