Sometimes it's hard to get the monkey off your back.

OK, if you want to be academic about it, it's not just any monkey, it's a Lemur. And it's not just any Lemur, it's a Duke Lemur. This Lemur traveled all the way from North Carolina with the help of Aunt Onika first to Maryland, then with mom over the Atlantic, to find it's way on Eliot's back. For even more academic information about Duke Lemurs, click here.

Eliot (Randy Beazdan the first), Andy, and I would like to introduce you to Randy Beazdan, Jr.

Eliot's little sister or brother is due to join us on January 2nd, 2008, and we're going to do our best to keep her/him in for a full 40 weeks this time! OK, if Andy gets his way, we'll have a 2007 baby (for tax purposes, of course!) We are all very excited about our new member of the family :)

Blast from the past (OK, only 2 months ago)

These are from a couple of months ago when my mom was visiting. She had a lovely time with her son and grandson in Bingen (a beautiful wine town on the Rhine River), and Eliot loved spending time with his Babcia.

This is us all tuckered out on the train ride home. I don't know, but I think Eliot's got the best seat in the house.

We had a fun time together for 2 weeks, then she travelled to Poland, and then came back for some more fun with Eliot while Andy and I snuck off to Paris!!! Thanks mom!

I can't hear you.

After a wonderful 3 day vacation with the neighbors, Eliot needed just a bit of alone time. Here he is practicing his budding ignoring skills. Michael just wanted to play more...and ultimately won out.

Looking a little quilty.

I think Kaya is ready for Mom to come home too. She's gotten a little extra attention from Eliot and is ready for a break.

Brushing Teeth

I know I said I wasn't, but I even got Eliot to brush his teeth. Renee will be so proud. I hear a superdad accolade coming.

See, I am feeding him.

Normally I wouldn't include a plate of half eaten food in the picture, but it is important that Mom sees that Eliot is getting some nourishment while she is away. Yes, it is corn two days in a row, but hey it's a vegetable. The spicy Italian sausage was all Eliot's idea.

Happy Mother's Day
(a sad, mad, glad greeting)

So I had to remind Eliot this morning that mommy had taken a plane to the States yesterday. He was sad that he could not wish her a Happy Mother's Day in person.


I said, "Don't worry she'll be home on Friday". We'll evidently Friday was a little too far away and Eliot was a little mad.

But then I told him that since it was just the 2 of us here alone...pizza and no brushing teeth all week! He was happy again.

Almost a month....

Wow, sorry, it's been almost a month since our last post. We'll we're almost done with our extended round of visitors and we have accumulated lots to post. Here's just a few until we have a bit more time.

Julie, Ron, Debbie, and Tony prior to our trip to Munich

Eliot and Michael all decked out for the zoo.

Gramma and Grandpa in Heidelberg

Easter 2007

We had a lovely weekend getaway this Easter to Zeeland (area on the North Sea in the Netherlands), where the Putsch's (Roman's parents) have a beautiful 37 ft sailboat/yacht. The trip was wonderful, except for that Eliot very much missed his Beaver grandparents, who had to postpone their trip due to some health problems. Everyone is now on the mend, and we are hoping for a visit very soon. They were very much missed, so we would like to share these Easter photos especially for their enjoyment! :)
I've got my chocolate egg, now hands off you scary rabbit!!!

More eggs??? CHOCOLATE eggs???

Easter choco-narcosis :)

Dave and Kim's visitDave and Kim just came out to visit us... yes, for all of my old friends, this is my "baby" brother who is all grown up now and has a real job, a new car, and is about to buy a house with his awesome girlfriend, Kim... I digress... in any case, they came out to visit a couple of weeks ago and we had an awesome trip. We did several day trips, including one to Bingen on the Rhine River (see pictures above and below).

Eliot definately thought that the best part was the super fast slide that his Aunt Kim and Uncle Dave took him on. This slide was built along side of the castle overlooking the town. Quite awesome.

Construction

Andy and Eliot building the sandbox, a birthday present for Eliot's friend Michael. Eliot recently received a play construction kit from his friend Ian, which he quickly mastered and moved on to the real deal. The sandbox did end up with a few extra dings from screwdrivers doubling as hammers, but lets just say it added "character" to the woodwork.

Birthday party

Yesterday, Eliot's friend (and next door neighbor), Michael, turned 2. He got to celebrate with a very cool fire truck birthday cake...
which Eliot liked very much. Please see the next post regarding Eliot and food. We now strategically send him out for meals so that the household does not go bankrupt. We are concerned for when he becomes a teenager and the feeding frenzies are even worse.

What a great hiding spot! Who needs a crib when you have a cupboard?

Eliot likes to eat


Over about the last 2 weeks, Eliot has done little else other than eat. He is consuming at times the same amount of food as Andy and I during a meal. It is quite impressive, and rather unbelievable unless you witness it yourself (ask Nikki, Jeff, Ben and Evelyn). Take for example the night these photos were taken... much past his bedtime, we put him down to sleep in his stroller and he was nearly out until... the food came and he quickly rose to the occasion. Please note the look of fierce concentration and then exuberance on his face. He had some serious Anatolian (type of Turkish) food to consume, and no one was going to get in his way...

Except for maybe his growing belly! :) All was well though, as after he finished eating, he promptly fell asleep, experiencing what the Germans call "fresse narkose" (aka food coma).

Turkish Bath

Merichel and Eliot enjoying a nice warm bath together on our trip to Turkey. They both enjoyed making big splashes!

More photos from Istanbul

View from our apartment. We were just North of the Golden Horn about 50 meters from the Galata Tower.

The Galata Tower from our balcony. Built in 1348.

Jeff and I pushing strollers through the back passage of the Hagia Sophia. We received many strange looks here. Actually, the strollers worked out very well throughout the whole trip, but I always had the feeling that we had the only two in the whole city.

There were many people taking photos at this site in the Hagia Sophia. However, most of the lenses were aimed at the two cats basking in the light at the bottom right.


Ben, Evelyn, Jeff, and Renee blending in the Hagia.


The Basilica Sistern. Very cool. Eliot loved the fish in this underground cavern.


Paused for tea.


This is about 1/2 of 1% of The Grand Bazaar. Renee and I got a kick out of commenting that it reminded us of The Alladin in Las Vegas.

Istanbul.

So we just finished a wonderful trip to Istanbul to see friends of ours (Ben and Evelyn). I feel that our experiences have been greatly influenced by the fact that we are travelling with Eliot as well as Onika and Jeff's 9 month old daughter, Merichel. Aside from the difficulty of pushing strollers through the streets of Istanbul, the Turkish people seem to be drawn to children and have displayed a warmth towards them (and us) that I wouldn't expect to find in many countries. We have enjoyed it quite a bit. I wish I could explain our experiences as eloquently as our hosts, but i can't. Consequently, please enjoy their account of the visit by following this link. (fixed)

Turkish Pigeons

During our recent trip to Istanbul, Eliot again shows his love for the local pigeons.

From the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.


This is our first breakage purchase. While shopping in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, Eliot manually explored this somewhat beautiful lamp a little too closely. In the end, this led to breakage and our 1st required purchase. While frustrating it is also historic.

La Chocolate

During our brief visit with Roman in Koln(Cologne) this weekend, we stopped by the Chocolate museum....because we all like chocolate. They had a full production line going on in there. Very interesting. This machine spins the hollow mold chocolates.


Mom and Eli-enjoying a choco-moment.

The fam in front of the chocolate fountain. Signs of sugar poisoning are starting to show in Eliot.

Choconarcosis has set in.

Detox sucks.

Olympic Training

One can never start too early.