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.

Playland Photos
In addition to many nice ammenities, our hotel in Austria (The Hagleitner) has a great play area for Eliot.







All done.... Now comes the bestest part of the hotel. After we put him down for the night, we have this cool pager/mobile phone thingy that only rings if there is noise in Eliot's room. Yep, we get to enjoy our nice dinner(and drinks) while Eli sleeps the night away. Very nice!

Ice Age

Today, we rode up nearly to the top of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier (3203m) taking up 2 big gondolas. Andy was brave enough to go snowboarding (this is day #3 for us snowboarding beginners) -- pretty brave considering we were above the treeline and it was difficult to tell where the beginner trails ended and where the edge of the cliff and XTREME snowboarding began! He made it back in one piece though, so Eliot and I were happy about that.
Eliot says: "Are we going all the way UP there??? Are you sure this is safe???"

Andy and Eliot at 2452 meters. The air is thin up here. Feeling woozy, better get back down.

"Wow"

Alpine Sledding





Yeah, Eli loved it.

Paparazzi

While traveling through Munich on our way to Austria, Eliot was mobbed by a group of Paparazzi (about 8 young Asian women). At least 1,000,000 photos were taken in the span of about 15 minutes. Dad enjoyed the eye candy, and was appreciative of his son's "babe magnet" skills.

Miscellaneous Xmas pictures
I know that we have been terrible at posting over the holidays. Please accept my sincere apologies. (and these photos)


Scott in his new hummingbird earings. You should see how they catch the light in the morning.


Sharing a banana.


Babcia and Eliot at Christmas dinner

Bruges, Belgium

Eliot, patiently waiting in line to go down his first ice slide. He is oblivious to the fact that he is in an igloo.

Wet diapers are not allowed.

New Year's in Berlin

The height of the trip for Eliot was definitely the Berlin aquarium. We had a hard time getting him out.