Freezing in France

We were in the alps, so you think I would have been a little more prepared for the cold. But I was not. And everyone kept saying, "I guess it's cold, and it's only november", as in it's not that cold, wait til you're here later in the season. I died a little inside. But now I know how other people feel when i tell them, "yeah it's 110F, but it's a dry heat". But I digress...

I went to Tignes, France for a week with my work family. They like to ski and apparently this is one of the best places in France for skiing (didn't find that out til I was home and got angry emails from bitter friends who ski). I spent my time there dressing the girls up for skiing (I am now an expert at dressing children in ski outfits), sledding, and napping. I had to nap a lot, because I was sharing a bedroom with the girls and Derin was having nightmares...about me crushing her in her sleep. She and I were sharing a bunk bed. Can you guess who had the top bunk and who had the bottom bunk? She woke up a couple times a night crying and screaming. I think she gave me weight complex.

All in all it was a pretty great trip. The town is a nice little place, and the scenerary is just astonishingly beautiful!!! But, I'm not gonna lie...it was good to be home and away from all that snow.

odd things

I was in Bebek the other morning, waiting for Rebby outside of Starbucks and I saw an odd thing (I would say the oddest thing, but my year in Turkey has led to many weird encounters, making me hesitant to label any such moment as the ultimate in odd). There were two men in suits hovering around one of the planted trees on the sidewalk. They seemed to be inspecting the flowers around the base of the tree, when all of the sudden these two, finely dressed men, started pulling up the flowers. No one but me seemed at all put off by this, but I could not look away. I just kept staring, thinking that these men clearly work for the city and that, judging by their work clothes, they are getting paid entirely too much for their jobs!

halloween and beyond

Oh, Halloween, I love you so!! Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. You get to dress up and you get free candy...what's not to love!? I was a little afraid that I was going to have to work this year, but fate smiled on me and the mother's brother got married on Halloween (ps, how awesome is that!?) so I got not only that night off, but also the next morning! Plans were quickly made to go and party. Rebby and I decided that we would have dinner at my place, then go down to Cats and see everyones costumes before heading down to Taksim to meet up with Anna and her friends. Well, I waited til the last minute to get a costume and the day I had planned to go trolling on Istiklal for a costume shop, God opened the heavens to punish me for procrastinating and proceeded to flood the city. So, on Halloween day, I went up to Akmerkez with Rebby with the intention of getting a childs costume and just making it fit (something my brother is notorious for and which always leads to hilarious outfits). After checking a few stores to see my options, we went into Zara to see if they had shoes. Well, once in Zara something miraculous happened. There, in the back of the store, was one lone flapper dress. It was the only one in the store and it fit like a glove!!! Clearly I was meant to be a flapper this year. So, with my dress in hand, the next thing to find was a feathery head piece of some sort. In a Claire's like store, I found exactly what I was looking for. Everything was just working out so perfectly...it was a Halloween Miracle!!!

And the night just continued to be wonderful! Rebby and I had dinner and got all dressed up.

We went down to Cats to check out all of there costumes, and it was hoppin...people were actually dancing (no one ever dances at cats...well, except for us, we always dance).

We hung out with friends there for awhile before heading up to Taksim to rendevous with Anna. Once there the awesomeness (and rain) continued. We went to Lokal and just danced the night away. It was fabulous!

But the best part, truly, was being able to sleep in the next morning!!!

God, I LOVE Halloween!!!!!!

Party Time!!

Derin had her birthday party this weekend. She turned 5 and was just so excited about all the festivities. On her actual birthday during the week, we had a mini celebration with just family and one of the fanciest cakes I've ever seen.

Sugar High!!!

The birthday party for all her friends was held at this sports complex. The truly beautiul part about having the party there, was that they had it in this downstairs area where the kids could go wild, fully supervised by the party workers, while the adults enjoyed non-sugar filled food and beverages upstairs. The pary workers were really nice, but when they first showed up, I had my doubts about them. They were dressed up in costumes. Now I know what you're thinking, it's a kids party, people wearing costumes isn't weird. Well it is if the woman is in her 40s and dressed in a princess outfit that is a little too tight. Derin's mom went and told the people they could dress in regular clothes, much to our (and I'm sure their) relief. The rest of the afternoon was spent in playing games, running around and pumping the kids full of sugar. And after another big fancy cake, we sent all the little kids home, happy and hyper.

Mohini

Mohini is a frightening place. It is a mall entirely deovted to children. They pump in child friendly music, have bright, shiny signs everywhere and noisy little computers for the kids to use. I end up here at least three times a week, running different errands for the girls. I'm not sure how much more of this place I can take.

The up side of this horrible place is: 1) All the activities that I can take the girls to. I just drop them off and get an hour and a half all to myself. 2) Some of the child friendly songs are from the musical Newsies, which I LOVE! So I always get excited when I get hear those songs. 3) A child friendly movie theatre. The third one is a good and bad thing. I'm always excited when we decide to go see movies, and then the movie starts and it's in Turkish. Always a let down. We recently saw a movie about crime fighting guinea pigs, that I'm not sure would have been that much better in english, but the girls enjoyed it.

Macro Center Happy Hour

On Friday night, Rebby and I were going to hang out at my new families indoor pool/jacuzzi. We decided to meet up at Akmerkez (the local mall) and get some snacks and things at the groccery store. When we got to the groccery store, there were women greeting the customers dressed as Holly Golightly, handing out chocolate covered strawberries and pink champagne. Odd, you say, well so did we til we found out it was the grand reopening of the groccery story. Not only were these fabulous ladies at the front doors, but they were wandering around inside the store as well handing out wine and other yummy snacks. Throw in the tables they had placed around with nuts on them and the guy playing jazzy little tunes on the piano and we decided we had stumbled upon heaven. Being poor nannies, we forgot all about what we had come to purchase, grabbed a table and stopped every lady with goodies that passed by us. Fastforward two hours and we were drunkity drunk drunk drunk...at a groccery store. Yeah, we're classy ladies. We made our way home, laughing loudly the whole way, and hopped into the hot tub. But for fear of drowning, we didn't stay in long. We decided to go down to Cats, because as happens when we drink, we really needed to dance. The upside of drinking at the groccery store is we didn't need to get any drinks at Cats. We proceeded to spend the rest of the night dancing our little hearts out with our friends at the bar. Good times!!!!

Down at Cats!!!

Marry me, Melos!

Besides me, the new family has a driver and a maid/cook. The maid/cook is named Melos and I am in love with her. She makes the best food e-v-e-r!!!! I wasn't to fond of Turkish food, til I started eating hers. And her soups are amazing. I just want to marry her so she can make me soup for the rest of my life.

now they just need a catchy little tune to play...

As we were taking the back streets on the way home from the girls' school today, I saw a truck whose bed was filled with onions. And there was a man in the back with the onions, talking into a megaphone and selling said onions. It was like an ice-cream truck, except for produce. They just need to come up with a catchy little tune to play..."Mom...Mom, it's the onion truck! Can I have a couple lyra to get something!?"

Really!?

This is an update on the work being done on our building. Still not done. And now they are doing something down by the pool as well!! We went down there the other day and the storage rooms were all ripped up and now it appears as if they are being turned into bedrooms, which is just kinda weird.

The worst part of the pool construction is, again, the staring. I've been giving the girls swim lessons, and Ruby is a screamer. She screams for the first 5 mins and then is fine. But now, I have this screaming child and all these strange fellows standing around watching her scream because I'm making her swim without her floaties. It's just awkward. And when I wanna go down for a swim and a sun bathe, I feel super scandalous in my bikini. I've just stopped going down there. They have to finish the construction sometime, right?

Germ Warfare

Elsa sneezed in my eye...again. And now I'm sick...again. I've never had more colds than in this past year while taking care of the girls. It's not right. Everytime I turn around someone is coughing on me or sneezing on me. Or one delightful time, we were walking to the park and I was holding Elsa's hand and I thought she had been kissing my hand. Turns out she had been wiping her runny nose on the back of my hand. *Shudder* Children are experts at germ warfare and sadly, I'm the one who is losing this battle. Now, where the hell did I put my airborne...

you would be sooooo sued in the states

We got home from our lovely beach trip earlier in July, only to discover that while we had been gone (for 5 days) the owners of our building had decided to have the outside redone. We walked up to the building and there was scaffolding covering the front of the building. We went down to the apartment discussing the lack of safety measures in place for the workers, put up the blinds and were shocked to see that they had also covered the back of the house with the scaffolding as well. Our beloved terrace had been taken over by the most unsafe looking scaffolding ever. Not only that, but to set it up they had to take all of our things off the terrace and they just sort of piled it all willy nilly out in the yard. Needless to say, many of the girls' flimsier outdoor toys did not survive.

It's been weeks now, and it's still there. And it wouldn't be a bad thing, but we don't let the girls out in the garden anymore because of the work. Yesterday, I saw a bucket fall from the top layer of scaffolding. To be fair though, their pully system is just a hook tied to a rope, so you know, things are bound to fall every once in awhile. They leave all their tools and work supplies out on the terrace. I have found nails, broken glass, and razor blades hiding in the grass. Of all this, the thing that bothers me most is all the random guys walking around the garden and staring in at us. Blatantly. I now have a new appreciation for how fish in bowls must feel.

they spontaneously tied themselves

Kate has had friends in town from New Zealand. They are hilarious. They also have two kids, a 5 year old boy, Isaac, and a 3 year old girl, LuLu. I've frequently been watching all four kids for the past 10 days, and am starting to feel a bit like the pied piper.

I was babysitting the kids on friday night, while the adults went out for a nice dinner. Kate was worried about me having to feed them, bathe them, put them all to bed, but I told her not worry, I got this. We get through dinner no problem. LuLu announces she needs to do a wee and heads off to the bathroom. I get the other kids cleaned up and into the lounge when I hear LuLu yell that she's all done in the bathroom. I go to help her out and the door won't open. The door on the bathroom sometimes sticks, so I give it another good tug...still won't open. At this point I know that pulling on it more won't do any good, I'm just not quite ready to accept this fact yet, so I stand there tugging for a bit longer before giving up. Defeated by the door, I now start, through the door, trying to lure LuLu off the toilet. It's at this point that she begins to panic.

"But I can't open the door. It's too hard." (Sobs and sniffing)

"Honey, I don't want you to open the door. I just want you to get off the toilet."

"But I don't want to open the door." (More sobs)

"Pet, I just want you to get off the toilet. You don't even have to go near the door."

"But the door is too hard to open." (Fewer sobs, thank god)

"Honey, I'll open the door. In fact, I don't even want you to touch the door. Just get off the toilet."


I hear her moving around and she's finally off the toilet. But now what? I decide that maybe it's not locked, maybe it's just the door knob being a jerk (denial, it's a beautiful thing). So off I go in search of power tools. I find the electric drill, but sadly this attracts the attention of the other kids and they all start crowding around and asking many, many questions: What's going on? Where's LuLu? Can I use that big noisy thing? Did she fall in the toilet? etc. So i do what any good nanny would do...I got them each a bowl of ice cream and put them in front of a movie. Back to the door. I get the knob off, but sadly that wasn't the problem. I start putting the knob back on and, of course, the drill starts losing power, until finally I'm twirling the giant drill to screw the last screw in. It was at this point that I have to finally admit that she has locked herself in. But here's the really strange part...there's no way she could have locked it. When I asked LuLu to come to the door, she couldn't reach the latch. I'm pretty sure it was at this point in the evening when my tubes spontaneously tied themsleves...never having kids. So now I'm sitting there looking at her through the key hole and trying to get her to find something to stand on so she can reach the latch.

"LuLu, go get the rubbish bin."

"I can't find it."

"It's right there next to the toilet."

"I still don't see it."

This proved harder than it really should have been. Finally I get her to go over and open the cuboard under the sink and take out the basket in which we keep the toilet paper (she could get that out of the cuboard, but she couldn't get the rubbish bin that was in plain site...I don't get it!) I hear all this noise as she drags the basket over to the door. And finally I hear the most beautiful sound in the world...the latch being slid back. I yank the door open and there she is, standing on the basket with such a look of accomplishment on her face. I pulled her into the biggest hug and we laughed and laughed. I got her a big bowl of ice cream for being so brave.

And when all the kids were asleep, I poured myself a hefty glass of wine for being so brave.

Anyone up for a game of chicken?

Today nannyKate came with me to pick up Elsa from nursery. Which meant that, for once, I had a witness to the crazy driving I'm always moaning about.





We are driving driving down this little, two lane hill, not even to the truly crazy part of the drive, and we see the people in the oncoming traffic lane trying to pass each other before my being in their way makes passing impossible. All of the sudden three cops on motorcycles come speeding at me...and they aren't moving back into their lane. They're getting closer and still not making a move. I slam on my brakes and only then, as I'm about to flatten them all, do they pull back over into their lane. I looked the lead cop in the eyes, he got so close. And he looked surprised, like "Oh my, a giant car is coming at me. Maybe I better go back where I belong". NannyKate and I were both just in shock.

I HATE driving here!

Can't we have one bath time where you don't question my life choices?

Sitting in the bath tub clearly makes Ruby very contemplative. A little too contemplative for my tastes. For it is this time of the day that I get bombarded with questions. And not easy questions, like why is the sky blue, or how was the universe created. Oh no, it's at this time that Ruby questions every life decsion I've ever made...Why did you come to Istanbul? Are you married? Why aren't you married? Is there a baby in your tummy? Why isn't there a baby in your tummy? Do you want to have babies? Do you want to get married? How come you haven't found your prince charming yet? And so on. At first I would answer her questions because she's just so cute, but I'm at the point where I just wanna tell her that it is none of her business and ask her if my mom put her up to this. But she's 4, I just have to keep reminding myself that, she's only 4. It's just that, I would like to get to the end of at least one bath time without feeling like I've done nothing with my life...

It's really just a bunch of tents...

There's been a fair sort of thing going on in Bebek Park this weekend. I took the girls to it on friday after nursery. They were so stoked! As we walked around and looked at all the tents, it became clear that this was less a fair and more just a bunch of random tents. Some were for legit businesses, but others were just people selling their old stuff, garage sale style. It was kinda weird.


After walking around awhile, we headed to the park so the girls could run off all the free sweets they had been given. They were on the swings f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Elsa likes to sit on my lap and swing with me on the big swings. Sadly the big swings aren't really big enough for adults, so I came away with two epic bruises, but it was totally worth it. When we left the park, I decided slushies were in order since the girls had been shockingly well behaved. We make our way over to the tent with the slushie machine, Ruby on my back and Elsa running up ahead overcome with excitement about the slushies. We get there and the guy working the slushie machine is super cute! He sees the girls and comes around from behind the table to talk to Elsa, who gets all flirty and shy and just smiles at him. Sooooo darn cute. He asks what flavor slushies they want and while he's getting theirs, he asks me what flavor I want. I politely decline, saying I'm just gonna steal some from each of the girls. Then he asks if he can make a gift, and since the girls get free things all the time, I smile and say the obligatory, Thank you, that's so sweet. I'm fumbling around in my purse, looking for my money when he asks me again what flavor I want. It's at this point that I realize, the gift isn't for the girls...it's for me! Made my day!!!!! I thanked him again for my free slushy (this time it's me who gets all flirty and shy) and we make our way home, slushies in hand.

The next day NannyKate came over from Asia so we could check out the stalls at the fair thing.

All the fun ones were the crafty ones. There were these super cute pillows that we both super liked, however having an arty aunt, I decided not to get one here and just see if she could make me one when I get home! We also thoroughly enjoyed some of the garge style stalls, complete with dresses that looked like they were stolen from some Florida retirees closet. Down side of going on the weekend, it was SUPER crowded. We didn't last too long before we decided to escape and get some frosty treats at McDonald's. We ordered our milkshakes and went and copped a squat in the park and just sat and talked for a long time. It was a good day!

Ahh, the sweet sound of small children strung out on sugar

The girls had four parties to go to today. After much strategizing, we came up with a game plan that didn't scare us...too much. It was decided that we would only attempt three parties, and that I would take Elsa to her classmates party in the morning while Kate & Jon took Ruby to his work party. We would meet back at the house at 3, when they would pick Elsa up and all go off to the last party of the day. Leaving me the rest of the day to myself.


My role in the day was small and in the end consisted of pumping Elsa full of sugar at the first party, putting her down for a nap and sending her off with the rest of the family to the last party. The best part of the party that I went to was the pinata! First of all, it was just exciting that they even had a pinata, which are not a common party item in Istanbul. It was like a little piece of home! Second, it was a party full of 2 & 3 year olds, making the participants not that much bigger than the pinata they were trying to bust open. Watching them desperately trying to break the pinata and get to the candy was hilarious! Swinging wildly with the little pinata bat, not really strong enough to do any damage, but trying so desperately...classic!! After the adults all had a good laugh at the little kids, they let the older kids in attendance have a go at it and within two minutes it was broken. And finally, the mad candy dash. I never see children move as fast as when they are dashing in to retrieve the hard earned goodies from a pinata. It was like a toddler mosh pit, with all them trying to fill up their bags with as much candy as they could get their little hands on. It's a frightening, and at the same time fascinating, spectacle.

I took Elsa home shortly after the breaking of the pinata. And at 3, she was off with the rest of them to last party of the day. I went out for a walk and had a quiet rest of the day. When I got home, I walked in the door and could hear both girls crying and screaming at the top of their lungs. After being strung out on party food and sugar all day, they crashed hard.

Thankfully I was off duty, so I got to grab my book and head outside to sit in my reading chair and relax the night away.

There's nothing scarier than a small child

Almost died of a heart attack last night.

Ruby and Elsa are crazy stealth at night.  Any other time of the day and it's like a herd of elephants, but at night, when they know they should be in bed, they are like tiny little spies on a mission.  And that mission is to scare me to death.  

I was eating dinner and perusing the internet, tra la la la la, and was in need of something to drink.  So I get up to go the kitchen.  As I'm walking through the doors to go into the hall, I see something out of the corner of my eye.  Jumped about 10 ft in the air before I realized it was Ruby.  She was standing there with her hair all in her face, half asleep, and just staring at me.  Picture the little girl from 'The Ring' except with blonde hair...soooooo creepy.  I had to take a moment to gather my wits about me, before taking her back to bed.  

And she does this all the time.  She stands behind doors, around corners and behind plants.  It's not that she's trying to hide, it's just that she is sooo stealth,  you don't notice she's there until you practically walk into her.  Add Elsa to the mix and it's like the children of the corn standing there staring at you through their blonde hair.  I think I'm gonna start making them wear cow bells.     

Just another saturday afternoon

This saturday, I had to take car of the girls because Kate & Jon were getting ready for lunch company. It was a beautiful day so I decided to take them down to the playground. As we are walking in the park on the way to the playground, I let the girls indulge in one of their favorite pastimes...chasing birds. They LOVE it. Their faces are pure joy when they are chasing after those pigeons. Well, today the pigeons decided to take their revenge. As I'm gathering up the girls to get a move on to the park, bird lets loose on Elsa's head. It was the most massive bird poop I've ever seen! I felt this thing woosh past my arm as it got her right smack dab in the center of her head. Elsa literally didn't know what hit her, so I was trying really hard to remain calm and not freak her out. So, I take her into the public bathroom and give her head a wash. Sooooo gross. Thankfully it just got her head and not on any of her clothes, so it wasn't too hard to get her cleaned up.

After the bird poop incident, I made the executive decision of lunch first and then the park. As a treat I took them to McDonald's. And as we are eating Elsa gets into a waving contest with this young woman at another tabel. After a couple minutes, the young woman comes up and asks to take Elsa's picture (a common occurence). Elsa seems ok with it and since she asked instead of trying to do it on the sly, which people do, I say sure. She takes the picture and goes back to her table. Another two minutes later and she's back again, this time with happy meal toys she had bought for both girls...I wish strangers would buy me gifts!

The girls were being super good and Elsa had gotten pooped on by a bird, so I bought them ice cream comes and we started walking to the park. As we are walking, they decide they want to sit and watch the cars go by, which I'm ok with. So we are sitting there on the grass next to the side walk, watching people and cars go by, when this fella walks by. He's just a hair to tall to technically be little person, and the girls love that he's just about their size. Thank GOD he was turkish becuase Ruby just starts asking, loudly, "why is that man so little? what's wrong with his hand? why is he only elsa's and my size?" and so on. And he in turn is saying how cute the girls are in turkish...it was all i could do to seperate them all and get the girls to the park.

The park is fine. The walk home is fine, mainly becuase we took a cab up the hill. We get home and the guests are still here. Elas runs outside and announces to everyone that "a bird pooied on my head!" That was my cue to go outside and lure the girls back inside with juice boxes and crackers. At this point, the girls are pooped, so I put a movie on for them. We then, all three of us, proceed to fall asleep on the couch.

The dedicated nanny hard at work

Later that evening, I'm sitting outside with the family while the girls are eating dinner. We're talking about summer plans when Ruby speaks up and announces that one day she wants to be big and fat like an elephant. She then turns to Jon and says, "And Daddy, I want you to build a stable for me to live in." I just about died laughing. I left the table as Kate and Jon were trying to keep straight faces while questioning Ruby's decision to be as big as an elephant one day.

It was an all around entertaining day.

In retrospect, maybe it's a good thing

Sometimes after I pick the girls up from school, we walk down to the neighborhood park. Walking down to the park involves going down "the hill". Even though I should be grateful to the hill for helping me loose weight and for toning up my legs (and arms as I usually end up carrying a hefty two year old up it), I loathe it. I've been going up and down that stupid thing for nine months now and yet I still feel like my lungs are going to explode by the end. It's not a particularly lengthy hill, but it's just ridiculously steep. But this post isn't to whine about the hill, so I'll get back on track...

At the bottom of the hill there is a police station, and walking down the last bit of the hill (or up the first part depending on whether you are coming or going) involves passing the officers' outside picnic area. The other day the girls were just being super violent to each other at the park, so we left early and I told them there would be no treats when we got home because of their naughty behavior. As we start our walk up the hill, they sit down for a rest (after about 5ft). That's when the police officers noticed them. They call the girls over to the fence and start cooing at them. Then the officers start feeding them biscuits through the fence. Now, even though I had declared there would be no treats for the rest of the day, I let this happen. You just don't argue with men carrying semi-automatic weapons! So the girls each have three or four biscuits each and then give the officers kisses through the fence and we go on our way, leaving their fan club behind.

Now every time we go past that spot the girls pop right over there to say hello and see if they can score some treats again. And the officers LOVE them. But more than that, the anytime we see any of the officers out and about, the girls run right up to them for hugs and a chat. I guess it's a good thing to be on such great terms with the local police.

Look out it's the popo!

I totally got pulled over today by the turkish police (again)!

Wait...let me back up a bit and throw a little expositional info at you. I drive in Istanbul, along with the other 12 million inhabitants of this city. However, unlike the other 12 million, I obey traffic laws. The manuevers these people pull in their cars...lets just say I have a mini stroke every time I am behind the wheel. Which brings me to my next point. I drive a British car. So in other words, I've been driving around this city on the wrong side of the car. They gave me the option of driving either the car with the stick shift or the car with the steering wheel on the wrong side. Yeah, I'll admit it, I don't know how to drive a stick shift, so I opted to learn how to drive from the passenger seat. Lastly, the car I drive has a special type of liscense plate number, one that makes the driver confident that when the police see said special number, they'll wave you right on. That is, unless you happen to be driving on the wrong side of the car.

Ok, back to the story. The police always have a road stop set up at this one underpass on my route to and from the girls' nursery. I have passed it, I don't know how many times since I've been driving here. The first time I got pulled over, we were on our way home from picking up Ruby and there they were. And they were letting some people pass and pulling others over. And suddenly this portly officer starts waving at me to pull over. I am in shock. But I manage to pull over and that's when they see it's a british car, and the officer asks, Do you speak turkish? And I sort of laughed (in a flirty manner if you will) and said, No. Then he asks, English? And I smile my biggest smile and say, Yes. And he smiled and laughed and waved at me to go. I've never felt so relieved in all my life. Plus, as I was driving away, he saluted us and the girls waved at him.

I assumed that after my brush with the authorities, I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Wrong! Today, exact same place, we get waved over to stop. Lo and behold, it's the same portly officer as last time. Why is this man pulling me over again? is the thought racing through my mind. Answer: He waved me over so that he could show the other officers (all of whom looked to be 12 years old) the British drivers side car. And I let him. You pretty much do anything for a man carrying a semi-automatic weapon. After a couple minutes of them inspecting the drivers side, my portly officer thanked me and sent us on our way.

Yeah.

Someday my prince will come...

Ruby is in LOVE with Hudson, one of the little boys in her class. She talks about him all the time...playing with him, marrying him, going to his house, him coming to our house. Well, we had a playdate with him today and while we were waiting for him, we were Watching Shrek...sort of. Watching movies with Ruby involves a lot of off topic questions. I'm always amazed by her thought process. Anyways, suddenly she asks me if I'm going to get married someday. And I said, maybe someday. Then she asks me if it will be to my prince charming, because she is going to marry her prince charming, Hudson. Young love, it's so darn cute! So, Hudson is over and they are playing and she informs him that he is her prince charming. He turns to her and says, "I'm not prince charming! I'm Bob the builder." I almost died laughing.

The best part of the story comes from my friend Cassie. I related the story to her and she replied, "Well Ruby should know that Bob the Builder would be a much better husband than prince charming anyway...he is a successful entrepreneur, knows the meaning of work ethic, and is a celebrity with his own top rated television show. He's loaded. Prince Charming is better suited for a torrid affair, with his pretty boy looks and playboy attitude." It's funny, cause it's true!

This ones for all you lovers out there...

Next week is Valentine's Day and I hate that holiday. Call me old fashioned, but I like my romance to be spontaneous and genuine, something done for no reason. But every February people are held hostage at arrow point by a fat little cherub and forced into romance, whether they want to be or not. Now some of you may be saying I hate Valentine's Day because I'm single, but I hated it more when I was dating someone. I actually prefer to be single on Valentine's Day, because that way I can do whatever I want and there's no pressure.

Now, even though I'm not a fan of Valentine's, there is one thing about it that I do love...love songs! Be they lovey dovey bits of fluff, or wonderfully poignant, I can't get enough of them. So, from classic crooners to pop tarts, here are some songs to put you in the mood, whether you want to be or not:

Maybe I'm a planner after all

For me one of the most exciting parts about a trip (aside from actually being on the trip), is the planning. During the planning process I unleash my inner nerd. I read guidebooks, spend hours looking up sites on the internet, and make calendar schedules. It gets pretty bad, but I LOVE it. The unlimited possibilites of where we can go and what we can do & see. It's just soooo exciting.

I'm leaving for Italy next week! I'm meeting my friend Cassie there. We'll only be there two weeks, so we decided to stick to three cities: Venice, Florence, and Rome. She gave me free rein to plan out our trip, mainly because her work schedule is pretty crazy in the winter. Little did she know the neurotic beast she would unleash. So far I've made four different calendars. I'm actually working on the final one right now. The best part is filling in what we'll be up to each day. I'm not so delusional that I think we'll stick with the schedule, but at least it's there if we want it.

Next stop (according to my calendar) Italy!!!

In the states we call that being a creeper

One of the hardest things for me to get used to here was peoples reactions to the girls. The Turkish people LOVE kids. And when those kids happen to be the most adorable, little blonde girls, look out. We tend to draw a crowd no matter where we go. And without fail, people give them candies and cookies. People want to kiss and hug them. They want to pick them up and pass them around to their friends. They want to take pictures of the girls. Generally, if the girls are up for it and the person asked our permission, we let them take pictures. Example: We went on a boat tour up the Bosphorus, which ends in a little town on the Asian side. At the restaurant we went to, the waiter recognized the family from the last time they had done the trip. He whips out his phone to show them the picture he had taken of Elsa, 4 months ago. It kinda creeps me out to think of how many pictures of the girls there are, floating around out there.

If someone back in the states did the things that the people here do to the girls, I'd be calling the police. But here, it's all from a very genuine place. It's hard to teach them stranger danger, when there isn't really any danger. I have become super relaxed about it. I've even started relying on strangers. At the local market, the owner adores the girls. So while he is doting on them and giving them sweets and passing them around to the guys who work in the shop, I get to do my shopping unhampered. It's fantastic!

However there is a down side to all of this. As much as they love to tell you how beautiful the girls are, they also feel free to try and tell you what you are doing wrong with them. The best example of this is when I have Elsa in the stroller. She tends to be a floppy sleeper and will loll her head about, which concerns some the of elderly people around here. And they try to share these concerns with me, in Turkish...which I do not speak. So when they realize that I have no idea what they are saying, they take matters into their own hands and try to move her head so that it will stay straight, which is always a losing battle and usually ends with them waking her up. I've had to be quite firm with some little old ladies here, that Elsa is fine how she is and they should just leave her be (me making my mean face, and doing a lot of gesturing to imply, "Stay away from my sleeping child!"). These kind of encounters usually end with the little old ladies saying something in Turkish, that I'm sure amounts to calling me an unfit mother, as they walk away shaking their heads. But I don't care, because Elsa is still fast asleep.

In the end, I just have to keep reminding myself that when I get home, I should not except candy from strangers.

I see carrots in your future...

I was walking through Oratakoy last Sunday with a friend of mine. We were heading to the House Cafe for dinner when we saw them in front of the restaurant...fortune telling rabbits. Now, I had seen some of these clairvoyent coneys once before while in a cab going through Sultanhamet and had immediately decided that having my fortune told by a bunny was something that I had to do. It was my duty as a tourist. Sadly I hadn't been able to find them the last couple of times I had gone back to that area. Fate finally stepped in and threw some in my path.

We walked over, and the fellow who ran the rabbit's booth said we just had to tell them our names. Once we told the rabbit our names he held up a holder with little pieces of paper stuck in it and the rabbit picked one out. Then we were told to make a wish and the rabbit picked another piece of paper for us. Finally we came to the best part, getting to hold the little bunnies. They were all fluffy and cute... Anyways, after we gave the bunnies back, we read our fortunes. Oddly enough, they made sense. Although, not particularly well written (but what can you expect from animals with no thumbs), they had a certain truth about them. Don't get me wrong, I list fortunes from rabbits just above those from cookies, but we both agreed that they were pretty dead on about us. I should have asked for lottery numbers.

4 Months

I've been living in Istanbul for 4 months now and barely know any Turkish.  I know the basics like hello, good morning, please and thank you.  I can also count to 4.  Not 5, just 4.  I think the problem is I'm living with a British/New Zealand family.  So instead of learning Turkish, I'm learning British.  And it wouldn't matter so much if I didn't know British, except that the girls can't figure out what I'm talking about if I  don't use the right words.  They don't want suckers, but they do want lollipops.  They look puzzled when I ask where their pants have gotten to, but know exactly where their trousers are located.  And don't get me started on the french fries are chips, chips are crisps saga.  There shouldn't be this much of a language barrier when you speak the same language.  

The only up side in all of this is that since the girls are so young, they still mimic what you say.  I've been trying to teach them American sayings and I didn't think it was sticking until the other day when Ruby said to me, "You're killing me, Smalls!"  Success!!!!  

Sadly though, the opposite is happening as well.  The other day I wanted chips and asked where the crisps were.  I've officially been here too long.