Sightseeing

With my sister-in-law, her hubby, and their friend visiting, I was pretty excited to participate in one of Rick's famed tours of our fine city. Usually Rick takes visitors around while I hold down the fort at home. We decided to risk a full day without naps and see what we could see. It was super hot, but well worth the trip to see these fantastic ancient sites. Rick has a gift for holding onto vast quantities of historic info in his head. It was really nice to see him doing what he does so well - teaching and sharing about the history and current culture of our home city. Moo loved spending the day doing anything with Aunt Julie. And Lu loves everything, so a fine day had by all.

 Tile mosaics from the Ishtar Gate - one of the gates to the ancient city of Babylon - 575 BC

 Not sure where this lion was from, but I got one kid to sit still in front of something old and called it an accomplishment.

 Basilica Cisterns - built by Constantine and enlarged by Justinian (6th century AD) -  stored water under the city in case of war. Moo and I liked walking on the boardwalks through this mysterious place - especially watching the fish swim in the water below.

 

 Includes an upside down medusa head - no idea why.

 After hours of Dad's tour guiding, Lu crashed. She skipped the cisterns.

 Egyptian pillar - 1500 B.C. - was placed in the middle of the hippodrome - a horse-racing track. Still looks like new!

 Blue Mosque - tourists visits this mosque to see the beautiful blue tiles from Iznik (ancient Nicaea) inside.

 A fountain in the courtyard - can you see the rainbow? And my kids making chalk drawings? Waiting for our relatives to see the Hagia Sophia. That is the one tourist place I had seen previously.  Rick has seen it a bunch of times, so we waited outside in the shade.

Streams of people enter the Blue Mosque during the holy month of Ramazan. Prayers and Qur'an readings occur throughout the day. The plaza felt a bit like the festivals I used to go to in Chicago - tons of people and different vendors.

waking up from naps

A new phase of napping has begun - just one a day, really. It seems obscenely soon for her to be going to only one nap, but c'est la vie. This is how she sometimes greets me after nap....face smashed against the bars, legs hanging out.

just because it's cute

Snack Time Conversations

Snack time seems to present an interesting environment for creativity at our house. Here are some recent conversations:

Conversation 1: (Phone call)
Moo, with an almond pressed into each ear (blue tooth?): "Hello! How are you? See you later! Bye!"

Lu, with the air conditioner remote pressed to her ear: "Bye!"

Conversation 2: (Word association)
Moo, after biting a cheerio in half: "Look! A Moon!"
Mom, in full song: "When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, that's amore!"
Moo: "Will the moon hit the sky tomorrow?"

Conversation 3: (Attempted phone call)
Lu, with air conditioner remote again to ear.
Mom, with plastic banana to her ear: "Hello? Can Lulu play?"
Lu: blank stare
Mom, with air conditioner remote to ear: "Hello, can Lulu play?"
Lu: big smile

Diagnosis: my child cannot fathom a rotary phone and a banana looks nothing like a cell phone.

3 days left

Wednesday: hump day

 Lu gets a little reading time in before nap. "Chooooooo"

 And a special thanks to GranBon for her letter that arrived today with these fun stickers! Fun for the whole family and the thing that got us from dinner to bed. A beautiful gift.

And a stunning self-portrait from Moo who was enamored with the special playback function of our digital camera.

4 days left

Tuesday: Starting to taste the finish line!

 Oh my goodness, why did I not have this stroke of genius earlier? What better place to get Lu her walking practice?? Here is Moo "walking with her". She is as ecstatic as a birthday girl in front of cake!

 Moo finds a secret hideaway in this tree. For those who follow the exploits of this young environmental savvy adventurer, can you see what he has his eyes on?

 Yep! One plastic water bottle tossed aside by some one who cares a little bit less than this little lad who makes a dead-on-sprint for the nearest trash can. Go captain planet!

 Yes, and here is what happens with four wheels and a little freedom. Oh the places you'll go.

 Moo lending sis a helping hand over that big water hose.

 Thanks to cousin Selma for this summer-fun idea of chalk drawing! Unfortunately it paled in comparison to the open road sidewalk.

 We gave bubbles a short go as well. Moo used to suck in rather than blow out, so his bubble-blowing has dramatically improved over the past year.

 Lu wants to use big bro's bubbles. Big bro is not accommodating.

 But Mom, I dumped all my bubble juice on my dress! What do I do now?

And the sad state of affairs of the rest of our park. Thankfully they are not remodeling the whole park, but wow...a sheer wasteland where our favorite playground equipment and picnic zone is! We hope they finish it before summer ends! Or at least before the pretty fall leaves start falling.

5 days left

Monday: 5 days left of Dad's loooooong course. What does Mom do in the 11th hour of full-kiddo detail? Take the kids for a walk....literally, no stroller, both kids must walk, we go as far as we can without falling down from exhaustion. So, we chose to visit Dad at Starbucks to cheer him up while he was working on homework. It is about one block. It took 15 minutes.

 Lu is trying to scale the wall behind our building...because big brother did it.

 Look! Two cute little people chairs! And two very tired children. Only 20 yards to go, but a good spot to rest. And a cat decided to come by and entertain us.

9 months after moving to this spot, I still have no idea why these dolphins are in front of this photo studio. I've never seen any brides posing in front of their parking lot. Ah well, it entertains the wee ones.

Note the slight bemused expression at Mom's request to stand under the dolphin.