more milestones

Some might think this girl is ready for solids.

 Micah's new big boy bed. Yes, it could sleep 12 small children. This might be the last time we buy something via the internet just by looking at a picture (in other words, without asking dimensions....or if anyone in the galaxy sells sheets of this particular size).  But it is really cool!

 Bonding with Dad and Mom.

do we blend in?

When I put Lydia's new outfit on yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that she looked not just cute, but oddly familiar.

 

Yes, a bit like the local cell phone company mascot.

And an outtake....just because it's funny.

reconnecting

From the beginning of August -  It was really fun to have our friends visit us one last time before they moved to the States. They arrived less than 24 hours after we did. Thankfully our house was not a mess as we had no luggage yet. Hugo and Micah had fun testing out Hugo's tent. I found the secret to 2 minutes of happy playtime - give each kid their own track. This works until one crosses over. Micah has already labeled all of the toys in our house Lulu's or Moo's (in his head)...so I can see that becoming an issue when she gets a little more mobile. The solution? More toys? I doubt it. Maybe all this 'sharing talk' will kick in one of these days. We pray it be so! 

 The girls - Eloise & Lydia - get some of their own toy time. They're a little more chill about sharing.

starting solids...

well, they do things a little different here.

Lydia's doctor's advice for starting solids is as follows:

(Can I start giving cereal soon? I ask. 'Oh, no. She might be allergic. Start with vegetable soup.')

At six months, start with vegetable soup at lunch time. Use whatever vegetables are in season, a little olive oil, no salt.
(Should I puree this? I ask. Yes, is the reply).

7-10 days later give yogurt around dinner time.

7-10 days later give cereal around 8 or 9 at night.

This sounds a lot cheaper than buying jars of baby food! But, we'll see what I actually end up doing another month down the road. I snuck several boxes of rice and oatmeal cereal into our luggage on our trip back from the States....as back-up. 

momhood

I took the kids to the park today and we were pleasantly surprised to see lots of young kids there with moms and grandmas and older sisters.  All these women except the grandmother wore headscarves. I sometimes feel a little wild when I walk into these environments with my short American haircut and capri pants. However, kindness and hospitality prevailed and before I knew it the grandmother walked right up to Micah and shoved a bite of banana into his mouth! Her grandkids were done eating their snack and half a banana remained. Of course it would go to the new kid on the playground, even if he didn't speak the language. Grandma started conversing with me...and as usual the intro questions went like this:
- Where are you from? Are you German? English?
- Do you live here?
- Is your husband from here?
- Does your mom live here?
- So you're alone then? (my husband doesn't count...typically there are female relatives close by to help with raising the kids)

And then several minutes of saying how beautiful my baby is. (it used to be Micah...but now they all dote on the baby....and he thinks it's funny-which I'm thankful for.)

composing...a sketch of daily life and not enough cash

I find myself composing blog posts in my head during the day sometimes...and then forgetting them by the time the kiddos go to sleep. Well, here are a few attempts at the crazy stories of my mommy-life over the past few days:

Yesterday I took Lulu to the doctor with Moo in tow. After two vaccines, I found myself at the checkout desk a couple hundred lira short ($100+) of the amount due. (Alas we only have one ATM card here (usually in Rick's wallet) and our US charge card charges us a whopping percentage on overseas charges). Happily, I have discovered that the doctors offices here are often quite willing to let me pay the balance at future doctor visits. How they know I will return and finish paying, I'm not sure, but I appreciate their trusting nature!

As a reward for Micah sitting through a doc visit, we hopped on over to the Little Caesars next door that just added a kiddy playground! (Hooray! Another kid friendly destination in our neighborhood). Knowing I only had about 10 lira and some coins in my wallet, I looked for the cheapest thing on the menu...hardly bothering to really read descriptions. The server offered me an English menu, but I said, "No need, just give me this parmesan pizza and an order of nuggets". 45 minutes later, when playtime was done and it was time to pay, boy was I surprised to find my order totaling 18 lira! I asked the server to check for a mistake, and to my dismay discovered my 'cheapest thing on the menu' was merely the cost of the special crust on a 9 lira pizza. Oh dear. I shook out my wallet and my pockets and surprisingly had enough to cover the bill. I'll have to give a tip next time.

Another surprise we discovered while we were gone was that they overhauled the bus payment system. You can no longer pay cash on the buses and they phased out the old keychain electronic payment method. Thus...new cards are needed that are only sold at certain city centers with exceedingly long lines as everyone tries to adjust to the new system. As I stood at the end of a line of 40 people with Micah in the stroller and Lydia strapped in the Ergo on my chest, sun beating down, my watch telling me I was already 5 minutes late for dinner 15 minutes away...I wondered what the likelihood of me ever getting one of these new cards would be. Then some beautiful pushy ladies behind me told me that I needed to go to the front of the line...I couldn't possibly stand here with these two kids in the hot sun as long as that line was going to take. I didn't think that would go over well with the other people who had been waiting in the hot sun.....but these ladies just pulled me to the front of the line and begged and pleaded and scolded until someone let me go in front of them.

As I carted my kids around on public transit this week, I was so blessed when someone on each bus helped me get my stroller on and off. I really appreciate the way they watch out for moms with little kids here. I think back home we sometimes expect moms to do it all and keep their kids quiet at the same time. I had 6 different people offer me a seat on the bus last night when Lydia started crying. Lovely.
 

random

We just got back from a blitz trip of the Midwest visiting family and I'm not sure where to begin condensing those hundreds of pictures into blog posts....so here is life since we've returned:

 One of Lydia's favorite things is to watch Micah play. She could watch him forever. Micah sometimes enjoys watching her too....mostly when she falls backward on Mom's lap because she's so (un)coordinated. He thinks that is hilarious. She thinks it's pretty funny that he thinks it's pretty funny.

 Micah sleeping on his new big boy mattress. This will turn into a bunkbed when we get the bag of screws from our friends who helped move it into our apartment while we were away this summer.

 A couple shots of my cutey. Hard to resist those beautiful eyes.

And then there is my little lad....dancing and trying out his blinking skills. What a crack-up.

finally home

Wow! We finally made it back home to Istanbul after leaving our many homes back in the States. On our way 'home' to the States a month ago, we spent 12.5 hours in the sky and 20 hours total door-to-door. On our way 'home' to Istanbul this weekend, we spent 10.5 hours in the sky and 30 hours door-to-door! What happened, you ask? The medical kit on our flight from Chicago was not working, so we had to wait 3 hours until they found a new one that worked. (2 in the airport, 1 in the plane). We of course missed our connection in Rome and had to wait 7 hours (instead of 1) until the next flight out (which was 3 hours less than the flight they wanted to put us on before we put our crying, sleepy children in front of the desk).  After two really yummy meals (thanks to food vouchers that were good for way more than we would have spent ourselves in an airport!), a lot of stroller pushing, and a couple accidental snoozes by mom and dad, we got on our last flight.........only to arrive here with out any checked bags. We waited 2 hours to fill out a lost luggage report...straining our brains to remember what we actually packed in those last frantic hours before we left Chicago. Was it 2 blue bags or 2 floral bags or both?

We are thankful to be in one piece. The kids did surprisingly well on their crazy sleep schedule and mom and dad survived quite well on even less sleep. We all slept from 1am until 1:30pm today. Micah has been playing hard with all his old toys that are new again. He has been reenacting the trip...

"the brown car took us to airport" "us on ku (plane)"

then he drew me a nice picture of

"mom and moo and dad and lulu eating table in house"

Woah! His vocabulary has exploded since we left!

We miss everyone at home very much. We look forward to skype rendezvous!

and more sleep. :)