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.