Yogurt-Face

We are exploring new foods these days. If we can stick our hands in it and put it all over our face, even better.

Orange t-shirt

6 months old and loving orange, sitting up nearly unassisted and grabbing everything possible.

From Here to There

Sometimes we all need to go backwards in order to go forwards. Here Evren Toprak displays his ability to move in reverse. After taking this photo, he managed to move around the blanket to the other side, and oddly had followed the edge of the blanket, making a 90 degree angle.

Boy in tights

In Turkey, boy babies (and girls) wear tights under their clothes to protect them from cold and drafts. I know I wore tights when I was in school, but only when I was wearing a dress. The multi-layered clothing thing is a new concept for me and rather cumbersome when changing a diaper, though it is found to be very practical by most people with babies that I meet. Here we have Topi wearing his Winnie the Pooh kulotlu çorap from Grandma Deniz very happily on a sunny afternoon.

Le Pain, Kanyon Mall, Istanbul, Turkey

Funny faces, Mr.Topi! But Mommy is happy because she is drinking yummy organic coffee and having a real adult conversation with her lovely friend Ilknur!!

with Auntie Ilknur!!!

Crazy daddy

Waiting in the car with a blue scarf on

I cut my hair

Push ups!

I know a couple of these are blurry, but I think you can get an idea of the joy Evren gets from doing his push-ups. We all clap and cheer when he does it so he's getting really good at them. :)

More January pictures...

January pictures

It is already February 5, so these pictures are a little bit late. We have had a pretty mild winter so far, with only a little snow now and then. I am hoping for a great big snowstorm so we can stay home and snuggle under blankets... these days I am teaching English several days a week, so getting snowed in doesn't sound so bad.

January milestones:

1. Topi discovered his hands!
2. He can sit up propped and loves to sit on our lap.
3. Impressed us by rolling from his back to his side while changing his diaper.
4. Can prop himself up on his arms and give us cute flirty smiles.

Blue coat

Thank you, Auntie Stacey for the blue coat you gave me for Christmas! My Baba loves how sporty it is, and Mama loves how it coordinates with her couch!

Cozy at home

Lots of learning and smiling lead to lots of sleepy time. For all of us!

Rahmi M. Koc Museum

On New Year's weekend, we took a trip to Istanbul to go to the Rahmi M. Koc Museum. Intending to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit displaying his machinery, flight experiments, and drawings, we ended up enjoying the rest of the museum more! Rahmi M. Koc collected vintage cars, carriages, engines, ships, computers, and other technological devices. His museum is split into two buildings, with a waterside location on the Golden Horn. We climbed aboard a small display airplane for Topi's first mock plane ride, and I posed in a vintage Turkish streetcar.

Christmas 2006 in Turkey

I know this Christmas post is oh, about 2 weeks late. But we've had a busy couple of weeks, lots of local visitors and two from far away! My brother Matt and his girlfriend Brooke stayed with us in Izmit for over a week and we had a lot of fun together. They helped watch Topi while I made a Christmas dinner of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, Dad's broccoli and cauliflower bake (minus the Cheez Wiz), and homemade pumpkin pie. In Turkey, you can't buy pumpkin pie in a can, so I roasted the pumpkin and then pureed it myself. Topi wore his Christmas outfit from Judy and managed to snatch an ornament off the tree all by himself! At the end of the night, he was pretty tired, as you can see. Lots of excitement for a 2 month old! I hope everyone had a good Christmas!