Cabin in the Woods

Last week my parents, Alan, Eli, and I went to our cabin in Asheville, NC for some rest, relaxation, and fresh air. Eli has been once before to the cabin but when he was only 2 months old and wasn't able to do much except sit in his bouncy chair, sleep and eat. Now of course, he's much more active and reactive to his surroundings. He immediately lit up when we arrived probably because it meant he had a whole new house to roam and explore. And he didn't waste any time before exploring. His explorations led him to opening cabinets for the first time, taking some rides in his 3-wheel stroller on the trails around our house, and working on opening cardboard boxes filled with newspapers.











It's always a lot of fun to go up to the cabin because other than doing some shopping downtown, there is very little to do other than eat, sleep, and lounge around. Obviously, there is less lounging now that Eli has joined us but regardless it's wonderful to be up there and watch him take in the new surroundings.



My parents were kind enough to look after Eli a few times so that Alan and I could do some shopping for things we have to bring back to Ghana and to let us enjoy a dinner out alone. We went to a new Spanish tapas restaurant that was fabulously delicious. We stuffed ourselves and then made the treacherous drive back up the switchback turns through dense fog and rain to reach our cabin. Unfortunately, by the time we got ready to pack up and leave, Alan and I were anything but rested and relaxed. Eli was sleeping horribly for the whole week and whether it was due to teething or just being in a new place we'll never know, but we we can only hope he'll go back to sleeping more than 2 hours at a time now that we're back in Athens.

Oma and Tutu

Alan, Eli and I just got back from a great visit to Bogota, Colombia where we visited Eli's other set of grandparents, Oma and Tutu, as Eli will one day call them. They have not seen Eli since he was a newborn so this was really exciting for them and for us. We wanted to show off how much Eli has grown and changed and all of his new tricks! Eli is really becoming the world traveler now and we are getting to be experts in lavatory diaper changes. We also got to spend plenty of time with Alan's brother, Ari, his wife Camila, and their two girls, Martina (3) and Ana (9 months). Camila took us to a few of her favorite places to spend time with her girls. One of them was a gym for children where they have a class with trained professionals to build strength, coordination, and the mom's get sweaty...or at least I did lifting and throwing around this 23lb baby! We battled through torrential rains and horrendous traffic for most of the visit to make sure we saw and did as much as possible. Eli was a champ in the car which unfortunately occupied more time than we would have liked and he giggled as Oma sang songs while driving in the front seat. We got a few sunny and warmer days towards the end of the visit which allowed us to take nice walks to nearby parks. We were desperate to get out of the car! Here are some pictures from our visit.

Oma with Eli and prima Ana.


Alan's long-time friend, Dora and the little one.


Sister-in-law Camila, and her super cute baby girl Ana.


Learning how to share...


The cousins, Martina and Ana.




Shabbat dinner at Oma's and Tutu's with brother-in-law, Ari and Martina.


The baby exercise class that proved I'm out of shape!




Eli's first swing.


We're going to miss Oma and Tutu and hope we get to see them sometime soon. In the meantime, we have plenty of great memories from our trip to Bogota.