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.