another year for the memory books...

 We celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago...Micah of course was ecstatic to stay up late, help blow out candles (if you look closely, you may be able to figure out which birthday), and EAT CAKE! Micah is now also quite excited to go to Bible study with me every week because there is always cake. Can't beat that.

My beloved husband blessed me with a fancy night out to the Hilton hotel for dinner. A beautiful view of the Bosporus, amazing food, and delightful (kid-free) conversation. Quite comically, we were the only ones there when we arrived at 7. By the time we left at 9 there were quite a few more dinner guests...several wearing jeans. But my hubby wore a suit and tie and I wore a dress that did not have baby drool, spit-up, or finger paint on it. Harika! (Awesome in Turkish!)

Siblings

 You would never guess from these photos that Micah has issues with his sister playing with his toys. He is making mom and dad crazy with his frustrated cries of "I not want Lu to play with that!" "I not want Lu to look at me!" And then there are other moments of the day when he just showers her with love and toys....in the brotherly way of shoving them into her face.

random sillies...

 Last weekend's fun activity was going to the amusement park at the mall before it opened. Micah had plenty of fun without turning on any of the rides. We'll save that for when he's older and knows they actually do other stuff. :)

 We convinced Dad to cram into a teeny truck to join Moo. Such delight on this little kiddo's face.

 Where's waldo??

Come fly with me...

We took an airplane trip this past weekend to the South. Micah loved watching the planes and going up high in the sky by the cloudez. Lydia loves her fair share of planes too. We had a big shock when we returned Tuesday...we sweated our way to the airport and then we got off the plane back at home and immediately commenced shivering in the rain. A weather shock to the system. Lydia got to try out her cute bonnet and booties from some friends in Gary. Now I am beginning the maddening process of switching over all our clothes to fall/winter season. Break out the boots and the coats! Where did I put all that stuff anyway? Not having closets lends itself to creative junk storage...but sometimes I forget where things went...

PS...

Lydia cut her first tooth last week too! She's getting so big!

Catching up....

 A couple weeks ago we had a fair at church with face painting and games! Micah was super excited to have a "green snake on my face. with grey stripeys and an ornage" (tongue). Two weeks later, he asked me today out of the blue if he could have a green snake on his face. Where did that come from?

 Yesterday, a local kids' bookstore sponsored a performance of two kids' plays at a cafe. I got a free coffee and Micah (and Lydia) got to see "The Giving Tree" and "Little Red Riding Hood" acted out by a drama group from an English speaking university. Micah pretended to be pretty nonchalant during the performances, but when I asked him about it later, he was quite happy to tell me he saw "two stories - a tree and another story". Lydia was fairly happy rolling around on the big comfy chairs at the coffee shop....why is it that coffee shops sometimes have chairs more comfy than our house?

 We topped it off with a trip to our favorite park...and Micah even let sister play this time! She cackled at him coming down the slide after us and he got pretty stoked to have mom and sis chase him on the big pirate ship.

 I love these two kiddos!!

Is it nap time yet Mom??

Lulu gets her talk on

Lulu turned 6 months old last week! We are astonished. But even more so at all her amazing feats. Last week she began to keep herself up when 'sitted'. She started eating homemade veggie baby food - carrots first. She's 'talking' A LOT. And, the hat trick - she started crawling this weekend! Quick, baby proof the house! I thought we were doing pretty good...until Micah started using the mini rocks from our candle centerpiece for his dumptruck quarry. Mommyhood must take it up a notch. While visiting friends, Lydia got to play with an exersaucer and one of those things that dangles over your head. She thought both were amazing. We knew she was getting bored staring at the same 'baby toys' all the time, but I'm afraid Micah is not ready to share some of his more exciting toys yet. Ah sharing. Someday it will come.