christmas lunch at cherokee

does it get any cuter???

yes, as grandma was trying to show the enormous gingerbread house to eloise, she started eating the cereal off of the pathway! Oops.

here is one of those picture perfect moments....until the next moment when she started grabbing ornaments and throwing them...good thing that her dad has quick reflexes.

she was being very wiggly and it was hard to get a good picture. I think this is the best out of the 6 that I took.

eloise has figured out a few new games....walking under daddy's legs and swinging (below). she is such a little character and a ball of fun!!!

decorating the tree

eloise enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree for about 5 minutes and then spent the rest of the month taking them off the tree and making piles of ornaments on the coffee table. We have had the prettiest and most decorated coffee table i've ever seen.

This should really be the first picture... in the tree lot picking out our Christmas tree.

cousins

eloise and her cousins on my side had some pictures taken to give grandma and pops for Christmas.

visiting santa and his reindeer

Along with Grandma and Pops, we took eloise to see Santa (on a folding chair in a Whole foods parking lot) and real reindeer. Eloise had fun, barked at them all and Alan and I had to admit that we weren't totally sure there really was such a thing as reindeer.....maybe they were like unicorns or something. Now we know!

She was scared at first but then quieted down enough for a photo. Unfortunately, we forgot a real camera and these pictures are all taken on a cell phone.

Happy Birthday Alan!

Alan took the day off and we enjoyed lots of good food and family time together. I took Alan to a restaurant called Kobe Steak House. It's a Japanese steak house where the chef cooks in front of you. We had a great time and were seated next to another family celebrating their son's birthday too. The mom claimed she has ESP and after examining and touching my belly (in which her 24 year old son was completely mortified), she announced that we were having another girl.
We'll see......

After breakfast we went on a little hike along some trails near our apartment. We live right along the Chattahoochee River and are surrounded by beautiful nature. It's a great change from the city life of Paris.

Happy Thanksgiving

Eloise and Uncle Jeff

She not only unloads the linen drawer in the kitchen at Grandma's, she now goes for a ride!

Lunchtime

Goofy GraMoM

GraMoM and Grandpa come to town

We got to celebrate Lisa's graduation with a trip to the Cheesecake factory. DELICIOUS!

Eloise certainly enjoyed all the attention and goofing off with GraMoM and Grandpa. Come back soon, we miss you!!

"Peek-a-boo"

just having fun

Halloween

Happy Halloween! I'm pretty sure Alan and I were more into it than Eloise was. Eloise didn't care anything about walking around, ringing doorbells and/or getting candy. However, she did dive out of my arms in excitement every time someone with a dog opened their door to greet us. If she could, I think she'd rename the whole event, "the neighborhood pet tour."

Groovy Grandma made the rounds with us as well!

Eloise among her litter mates

Part III: visiting the Krugs in NH

Eloise and I flew up to NH to visit my best friend Tina and her boys while her husband, Brian, was out of town on business. Even though we were outnumbered by the kids, we had a great time catching up, learning more about parenting and especially getting to know each others' kids more. Thanks for having us Tina!

I came upon Eloise in this predicament...I'm not sure she intended to end up like this, but she was strolling along, happy as a lark. (the bed-head is a nice addition the photo, too!)

We had so much fun playing outside in the yard and feeding the chickens. The Krugs have 9 chickens that gave us plenty of delicious eggs to eat while we were there.

The kiddies dressed up in their Halloween costumes since the boys were headed out to trick or treat that afternoon as Eloise and I flew back to Atlanta.

part deux: NJ and NY

On our way to NYC, we stopped in Annandale, NJ to see Tim and Christie Jaegle, some friends of ours that lived in Paris the same time that we did. We had lunch and walked along a beautiful trail next to a river.

Then on to Brooklyn, NY to see Alan's sister's family. Eloise had a ball getting to know her cousin better and chasing around their poor cat, barking at it. Thank you so much Jerah and Matt for having us there!

Jerah took us on a tour of the UN. Since it was after that last guided tour, we got to play around at the podium in the general assembly and security council.

Always thought that kid looked a little British to me...