34 weeks

Well, here we are at 34 weeks. I feel like I grew an extra 5 inches of circumference last week. How can I tell? There seems to be less room between my head and my lap when I sit. 8:00 bedtime looks more and more appealing. Micah is pointing to where the baby is. So cute.

Videos from Bolu...where the action is!

Trip to Bolu

We were super-excited to get 3 hours out of Istanbul last weekend on a "Valentine's special" at a retreat center. 3 nights for the price of 2 and in a beautiful mountainous, forested region. The retreat center is not fully built yet so Micah got to see a cool "digger" truck like in his "diggers and dumpers" book. 

Two weeks before we went they had a meter of snow! Though we were sad that most of it had melted, we still got to experience some winter weather. We crunched around on the unmelted snow on Sunday and then it snowed lightly throughout the day Monday giving us the opportunity to build mini-snowmen and have snow ball fights. But how about that view??

 Micah and Dad getting sleep dog suited up for snow fun (although sleep dog stayed inside).

 Check out this cool hide-out!

The first day was a bit muddy....

but that didn't prevent hours of swinging fun. A great trip had by all.

Mom and Dad's favorite parts:
- being able to walk straight out the door for adventure (not up and down four flights)
- fires in the fireplace every night! How romantic.
- learning Catan the card game one night
- seeing Micah enjoy himself in a natural setting...he hasn't completely gone city-boy yet!

a day in the life

So, the other day this van of folks parked outside our building, pulled a table and chairs out, produced food and tea, proceeded to eat lunch, pack up, put everything back in the van, then drive off. A variation on the picnic, I guess you can set up your own personal restaurant wherever it seems like a good spot, if you have everything you need in the back of your van!

Trip to the Koc museum

 We visited the exciting Koc Museum this weekend. Micah was excited to check out all the trains, cars, and airplanes. It is a very nice museum and we adults could have spent hours there looking at their fun displays...alas Micah was a little bit miffed that you couldn't get inside every single vehicle.

 Toot Toot!

 Neigh!

 Now, why didn't we think of this place for our wedding pictures?

 On the carousel, Micah skipped all of the horses and went straight for the car. I said, "don't you want to go 'up, down' on the horses?" "no!" Cars are best.

 This was a fun old fashioned train ride along the waterfront. Nap time has hit as you can tell by the far off look in our son's eyes.

 Is there any more to see here guys?

Ah ha! A bus from London! Wow.

what is a jicama?

that is the current size of our baby....girl.


Yes, we unexpectedly found out we are having a girl. We're delighted.

We just wish we knew what a jicama was.

New tastes

Having just finished the autobiography of an individual living here from the early 1900s, one thing that amazes me is that the food that people here eat and love has not changed in over 100 years! Also, there doesn't seem to be much difference between how a dish is prepared at one restaurant versus another. It might be done better (fresher ingredients or something?) at one place, but there doesn't appear to be variation in what is served. Wow. This is so foreign to me when I try not to eat at the same restaurant at home twice until I've tried all the different options in town.....or at least not order the same thing twice. And...I just checked Red Robin's website and there are indeed 13 different types of burgers available...with chefs always seeking to introduce something new. So what is our obsession in America with new tastes? and new experiences for that matter? Even as I write this I know that there are lots of people who prefer to eat at the same place month after month...my parents for example :). So maybe it's just my personal obsession with trying to not miss out on anything this good earth and it's diverse chefs have to offer. And yet I still have limitations....sushi, dates (they look like cockroaches to me), and unidentifiable parts of animals I might give names to.