Pals

Micah and Hugo loved having wide open spaces to run in...including some small piles of fallen leaves. I'm so glad that autumn exists here! Since the day the weather turned from 90+ to mid-70s, I've been dreaming of pumpkin carving. They do have pumpkins here, though they aren't orange. We'll see what kind of autumn traditions we make here over the coming months.

Here are Micah & Hugo at the forest near the Termal baths....picking up and redistributing leaves.

Micah and Hugo waiting for our ferry to arrive. Hugo got his dad's leftover chocolate stick...but Micah got sleep-dog.

Micah and Benjamin enjoying a moment of sharing...documented for future reference on how it is done. ;-)

Trip to Termal

We were able to take our second trip outside of Istanbul this past weekend. We took an hour-long fast ferry to a small town known for it's thermal baths and special waters. Rick got to experience the thermal bath early Friday morning with all the other old guys from town.
Above is the fountain for water that will make your stomach feel well.

Actually pausing for a kodak moment.

Water for making your feet well!

hair cuts

So we decided that Micah should get to go to the barber with dad....mostly to have something different to do. And to see what a kid-cut here would look like. So, here is our sweet boy before the barber....

And here he is after....

Oh my goodness! He looks like a little man!! Ahh!! Where is my wee lad?

Adventures in eating

So Micah has a new way of savoring his meals - we call it Yoda style. He closes his eyes, finds his food, and then squeezes his eyes tight while he chews. We can't quite capture the event on video as every time he opens his eyes and sees the camera, he wants to watch himself. This is as close as we could get to sharing the fun with you. I hope the video works for you. We're blocked from watching them here, so let us know if it works!

Puppy Love

Well, we are also grateful that the puppy's owner came to take him home last week. Our lives have returned to some stage of normal with the joy of putting carpets and rugs back out, purchasing less paper towels per week, and not worrying about every plastic or wood item in the house having teeth marks. However, Micah did eventually find that special 'man's best friend' bond and he has thus not given up on loving all kinds of dogs. He'd wake up from nap-time and run for the plastic balls to play fetch....or he'd put his head on the floor until Kral came and licked him all over.
Micah has also recently taken to eating snack only after Sleep-dog has taste tested first. I'm sure he learned this from TV...or something.

More work projects

Hooray! A/C has arrived!! We have enjoyed A/C bliss for over a week now and it has made such a difference in our daytime stamina. Thankfully now the weather is getting a bit cooler too (less humidity), but we sure appreciated that investment.


Micah helped Rick put together our new fans a couple weeks ago. He loves to sit with Rick's tool box and take all five of his tools out to examine. Favorite activities include pulling out and retracting the tape measure and twisting the screwdriver into our rug.

Faces

According to baby-center Micah is supposed to be learning 10 new words a day. He definitely is not saying 10 new words a day, but he has increased his body part knowledge and can almost do 'head-shoulders-knees-and-toes' without looking at Mom. He's excellent at Simon says...to the point that tonight we all had a dance party at the dinner table as Micah imitated Rick doing head-bobbing and arm-dancing to the radio. When we show Micah these photos on the computer, he always imitates himself...hands on head, hands over eyes, hands on ears...he can't quite re-create the last photo though.