Beans and Birthday

Eliana enjoys some refried beans as beard.

Will Smith on Veterans Day.

Eliana tastes her first Dairy Queen ice cream cone. She was not interested...

Happy with birthday balloons!

Reading

Eliana loves reading these days. She looks like such a big girl when she climbs into a chair with a book. Some of her favorites are "Pat the Bunny," "Baa-baa Black Sheep," her book of Mother Goose -- including "Dickory, Dickory, Dock" -- her baby Bible and her book of colors.

We've Moved!

In late October we moved from the one-bedroom apartment we've lived in since we got married. We moved all the way across the parking lot to a two-bedroom. We're just about settled here and really enjoying the additional space. Our apartment faces a stretch of trees. They're beautiful, so calming. And once the leaves fall we'll get even more southern winter sunlight.

Eliana's First Birthday!

Eliana is one year old! Last week we celebrated her first birthday. I'm posting some pictures from her party. A few friends came over -- including her best friend Simona and our neighbors Charlotte and Amanda. Eliana opened presents, chased the helium balloons (or as she would say "bm-bm-bah"), smeared frosting and all-in-all had a wonderful time. We modeled her cake after her favorite thing -- the red dog ("ng-gah") that's attached to her pacifier.

Eliana is a lot of fun these days. She is walking, running, climbing, spinning, etc. A real joy. She weighs close to 19 pounds and has 8+ teeth.