What a Day!

Today started out great. Lane slept until 8:20. Well, she woke up at midnight (she hasn't done that in awhile...I don't know what was up) and again at 5:00 (which is normal), but still, sleeping in made up for waking up twice! The day was beautiful...warm, sun shining brightly, a slight breeze. I let Lane eat pancakes topped with puréed apples for breakfast. And then we decided that since we haven't been able to do anything the past two Thursdays because of horrible weather that we'd head out to The Princes' Islands, a supposed "must-see" in Istanbul, after Lane woke up from her nap.

While she was sleeping, we got a package! Actually, we got three packages!


Two envelopes from Shannon's mom and stepdad, and a box from his dad and stepmom!

And what was inside?


Lots of clothes!

Lane didn't have very many long-sleeved things, since it was spring when we were in the States and people were buying her things. So, when it got cool a couple of weeks ago I requested a couple of things. My in-laws never cease to amaze me with their generosity: I was definitely not expecting so much stuff!


More socks! Check out the ruffles on those pink and white ones! Oh at the cuteness!


Warm pajamas, a zip-up sweatshirt (which Lane actually wore today), and more long-sleeved tops with matching leggings!


New Auburn gear! An AU onesie and a sweatshirt...we couldn't have her outgrow her other Auburn stuff before football season was over!


A button-up jacket/sweatshirt with matching pants, and a jumper with a matching onesie.


A new hat and mittens. Aren't these SO cute? The hat is still a bit big on Lane, but oh. my. goodness. SO cute.

So, Lane got lots of goodies today! Thanks SO, SO, SO much Lyn and Cindy and Sharon and Milton!!!

Ok, back to our day. So, after Lane woke up from her nap I nursed her, we ate lunch, packed our bag, and headed to the ferry port. Now, it needs to be mentioned that we are still very unfamiliar with things in Istanbul. I mean, there's only 20 million people here, so it's not that big, right? :-) We know our neighborhood pretty well, and we know the area between our neighborhood and the port pretty well. But beyond that...well, we just don't get out that much with Lane. All you parents know how it goes.

So, we showed up at the ferry port and heard someone saying that the boat would leave at 1:00 (it was about 12:40) so decided to wait there. At about 12:55 Shannon accidentally dropped his acbil (strange public transportation credit thing) in the water, so we ran off to get another one, and ran back to the dock. 1:00, 1:10, 1:15 all came and went and still no boat. Someone else told us 2:00, so we headed to a Starbucks nearby so that Shannon could use the bathroom. We got back and decided to investigate further, since Lane was becoming crabby and we hadn't seen a single ferry going to the Islands yet. Well, guess what? The next ferry wasn't until 2:20! We finally gave up and decided to walk around until Lane fell asleep.


Checking out the Bosphorus.

We ended up walking around for about 30 minutes with Lane screaming her head off. She was so tired, but I guess that since she's gotten to take every nap in her bed for the last three weeks she did not want to fall asleep in the ERGO. Let me also bring to your attention that Turks (so we've been told) don't let their babies or children cry. They give them what they want and do whatever they can to get them to be quiet. Enter the strange Americans who are just letting their baby scream. I mean, what am I supposed to do? The kiddo is tired and needs to sleep and I'm at least 30 minutes from home, so she might as well get over it and go to sleep! She finally fell asleep, but not before one old woman asked me if my baby was hungry, and not before another old woman sprinkled some kind of perfume on her (?).

Ahhh, blessed silence. We got ice cream and walked around a bit and finally decided to attempt to get to a discount mall that I had been to once, but never by public transportation. We finally made it after a long bus ride and then having to walk on the side of the highway for a bit since the sidewalk was under construction. We priced some electronics, looked for a noise-maker (no such luck...or at least no such luck in my attempted Turkish), checked out baby clothes, and ate at Sbarro for the first time (the verdict: not that great). We made it back home just in time to feed Lane a scrambled egg, get her a shower, and get her in bed before turning our attention to dirty dishes, stuffing cloth diapers, and studying language.

Sigh. What an exhausting day! Shannon and I were so frustrated...all we wanted was to go out and have a nice, relaxing day at the Princes' Islands. Instead we got 2 hours of a screaming baby, losing an acbil, and people never giving us the real story on what time the next ferry would be! Fortunately everything got better after Lane took a nap and we abandoned our expectations and decided to just enjoy our day. We should all sleep well tonight, though!

Tomorrow Lane turns nine months old. At nine months most women are able to say they've had their baby for as long as they were pregnant...but not me! I'll have to wait another 17 days for that statement!