4 Months Old

Cutie-pie.

Dear Noel,

Yesterday you turned four months old! You're getting so big already...it's amazing how much you've changed in the last four months!

Three weeks ago you started sleeping through the night, which has been marvelous. You'll go 11 hours between feedings at night, usually eating at around 7 p.m., going to bed around 8 p.m., and waking up at 6 a.m. I cannot tell you how excited I am that you're sleeping all night! While I'm still tired almost every single day, it is certainly so nice to get to sleep all night! We're still working out your nap schedule, but you usually still take four naps and nurse five times during the day. You seem to be gaining weight appropriately, don't seem to be "needing" extra calories, and since we don't have a bouncy seat or anything like that anyways (you know, so you could sit fairly upright on your own), we'll probably wait at least another month to give you solid food.

Putting toys in your mouth is a new favorite activity.

This month you found your thumb. I think that finding it and deciding you like to suck on it contributed to you sleeping all night, and try as I did to prevent you from sucking it, you're still managing to start bad habits early. Sigh. You do like the paci, too, but you can't hold it in yet, so your thumb usually ends up in your mouth at bed and nap time after you've spit the paci out. I'm hoping to be able to break you of the thumb-sucking before you're too old, but I'll wait until you're able to put the paci back in on your own.

I took you to the doctor yesterday and you'd gained about a pound, putting you at 12 pounds, 12 ounces. You also grew three centimeters, so now you're right at 24 inches long, and your head circumference is 15.75 inches. You can hold your head really steady and enjoy tummy time if it's right after you've woken up and eaten. Otherwise you usually prefer to lie on your back.

Tummy time with toys! (and a burp cloth to catch all the drool...)

This month you've started smiling a lot, and you've started pulling things to put them in your mouth. You especially like putting toys and your hands in your mouth. You're trying really hard to roll from your back to your belly, but you haven't managed it yet. You've laughed a couple of times, but we haven't figured out yet what will just make you crack up. You are such a content baby; you love to be held and smiled and cooed at, but you're perfectly content to play on your play mat as well. If you're crying something really must be wrong, or you must be hungry, because otherwise you're a happy camper. You absolutely love Lane. She can get more coos and smiles out of you than anyone else, and most of the time she's not even trying! I'm so excited for the two of you to have each other to play with as you get older.

Noel, I love the rolls on your thighs and how your cheeks just bunch up into themselves when you smile. I love knowing that I'm your favorite person in the whole world, with Daddy and Lane following close behind. I love snuggling you and holding you and rocking you to sleep when your schedule's been off and you're extra tired. I just love you, and I thank God every day for the blessing that you are to us!

Love,

Mommy

Someone Loves Me

A couple of weeks ago Shannon came home and brought me a pin. He said that another friend gave it to him to give to me because it would mean something to me.

The apostrophe should be over the "S"..."Ktoś Mnie Kocha."

So, he handed the pin over and I looked at it and thought, "'Someone loves me.' Ok...well, it's Turkish and since Shannon doesn't speak Turkish, I guess that's why she gave it to him to give to me."

Shannon then asked me if it meant anything to me and I repeated my above thought. He replied, "Oh. She said it was Polish."

Then I looked at the pin again and realized that indeed, it was written in Polish. Is it sad when you have so many languages in your brain that you can look at or hear something that's not in your native language and know that you understand it, but you're not sure which language it is? My poor brain...

Sure enough. Polish indeed.

Happy Easter!

Yesterday we took Lane to her first Easter egg hunt. She had a blast.

Daddy's leading her on the hunt.

Found one!

Chomping on some candy while hunting eggs.

Then this morning I hid eggs in our living room while Lane searched for them for about two hours. I still can't believe she was entertained for that long!

On tippy toes to get some eggs!

She made this face for every. single. egg that she found.

This afternoon I took Lane to the bazaar and to the park while Noel napped and Shannon worked on some things from home (I know, sad to work on Easter, huh? But we had most of our Easter festivities yesterday). I let her walk a lot, climb on things, jump, and so on, and she had an absolute blast. It was a gorgeous day and we spent almost two hours out and about.

My favorite photo from Easter Sunday...she loved that gate.

And Noel...well, she pretty much slept all day.

Snoozin' away!

I'm really looking forward to next Easter when Lane will be old enough to understand more about why we celebrate Easter. For now, she claps and says "yay!" when we tell her that Jesus is alive, but anything beyond that is still lost on her. So next Easter...next Easter should be fun.

From the Archives: Hello, Vacation!

Last April Shannon's mom and stepdad came to visit. We hung out with them in Istanbul for about a week, and then we took five or six days and traveled around Turkey a bit with them. It was, to be quite honest, exhausting (I was newly pregnant and Lane got five teeth, three of them molars, in five weeks). But it was fun, and it was good to see his parents. Sometimes I feel bad for Lane because she just has to deal with all the craziness that our lives entail, but she seems to do pretty well with it all.

We greeted Sharon and Milton with BBQ sandwiches for lunch, and cake for dessert.

Boy were they surprised! I made a cake for them to announce the pregnancy, and we made cards and had them mailed to the rest of our family members that arrived right around the same time as Shannon's parents got here.

Anyhow, we "did" Istanbul first, taking them to see the main sites here after they had recovered from jet lag. We didn't really get many photos here, since we'd already been to the Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cisterns and didn't want to pay to enter again. The only new site for us was the Blue Mosque, and I'll give it its own post soon.

Me and Sharon (and Lane) in front of the tulips near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

We spent a few days just hanging out at home, going out to eat Turkish food, playing with Lane, and just enjoying each other's company.

Mimi reading Lane's new Easter book to her.

Papa and Lane, just chillin'. Gotta love Milton's jet-lagged bed head!

Lane in one of her new dresses and daddy, playing hide and seek behind the curtains.

Then we flew to Cappadocia, Turkey, where we spent three days and two nights.

One of the rooms in Derinkuyu, an underground city.

At the Göreme Open Air Museum.

Even Lane had fun!

Cappadocia is full of views like this.

Shannon hiked to the top of a...rock formation?...and got this shot.

People used to live in there. So strange!

Awesomely weird, huh?

Next we flew to Izmir, Turkey, where we spent two days and two nights. Our main reason for going to Izmir was so that we could go to Ephesus, which is about an hour away, but not convenient for flying into. We actually know people who live in Izmir, so we got a bit of help from the airport, finding the buses to Ephesus, and so on. Here are just a few photos of Ephesus. I could easily go into photo overload here but I'll just give you the highlights...

From Selçuk (the nearest city), it's a couple miles to Ephesus proper. So we took a horse-drawn carriage, which was quite fun, and was my and Lane's first time in a horse-drawn carriage (to the best of my recollection).

Arcadian Street. Which leads up to...

The Theatre Gymnasium.

A bit further down (to the right) you'll find:

The Celsus Library

Shannon, Lane, and myself standing at the Celsus Library and looking out into the auditorium with Curetes Street to the back right.

Curetes Street: one of the main streets in Ephesus.

The view from up Curetes Street, looking down toward the library.

Lane did a lot of playing with rocks in Ephesus.

And then it was back to Istanbul for a few more days before they had to leave. We had a lot of fun with them, and of course they loved getting to actually play with Lane (since she was only five months old the last time they had seen her, she wasn't really into playing yet). All in all, it was a great vacation. The time went so quickly...it's always sad when vacation is over, especially when it's with family you don't get to see very often!

Life Lately

So, obviously blogging hasn't been my top priority these days. But I'm still here, and I'm convinced that one day (maybe this summer?) life will settle down a bit and I'll find my groove and get back to blogging regularly. Until then...I'm here when I can manage.

So, lately, I've been...

1) Cooking! If you follow my recipe blog, or if you know me well, you already know that I've never been big on processed food and have always (since I learned how to cook, that is) liked to make things from scratch. Recently I've been analyzing our diets and trying to "fix" some small things about it. Like our dependence on cereal for breakfast. Since we live overseas I already make a lot of "convenience foods" from scratch. For example, this morning I made cream of mushroom soup from scratch, I've already made marinara sauce this month, and I'll be making barbecue sauce in a week or so. But things like cereal...well, I've just never been motivated to change, even though I know it's loaded with sugar and other junk. So this month we're changing it up. I'm making my own granola. So far I've tried two different recipes, and while neither of them is my favorite yet, I'll be sure to post a recipe when I find one I like. I've also perfected a new recipe: Soaked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Bread. It's delish, and easy. You should try it.

Homemade Wheat Thins. So yummy with...

Homemade hummus! (Lane doesn't even need the cracker...she prefers a spoon!)

2) Baking! Shannon's mother sent Shannon back with some Easter decorations, so Lane and I made some cupcakes and decorated them all fancy-like. Please, someone out there tell me I'm not a horrible mother for not really enjoying baking with Lane yet. I feel like all I do is tell her not to put every. single. thing in her mouth.

3) Care packages! We got two packages from friends back in North Carolina, which was a very pleasant surprise! Thanks so much, Kate and Andy and Dean and Robin! (And, just so it doesn't go unsaid, my mom has sent us a couple packages now that I just didn't get pictures of. Thanks, Mom!)

4) Reading! Lane got a few new books for her birthday so she's been enjoying those. As has Noel.

All of us enjoying a book together.

As for me...I finally got this:

Yup, I finally caved and read it!

And I've gotta say...definitely worth the read. I am actually able to exert self-control and haven't gotten books two or three yet, but I will when I have some free time. I finally just decided that I hadn't read a book for fun in, oh, six months or so, and that it was high time, so I bit the bullet and got something for fun. And oh, it was fun to read for fun!

5) Sleeping! Yup, that's right, sleeping! Noel has slept through the night (10ish to 7) without eating for four nights in a row now. It's been fantastic. I'm hoping it sticks! Although I'm still exhausted, even though I'm getting seven or so hours of sleep straight. Guess it'll take me 3 1/2 months or so of normal sleep to make up for 3 1/2 months of interrupted sleep?

And there ya go. Five things I've been up to. Of course I've actually been doing a lot more than that, but hey, you all gotta take what you can get from me!

26 Months Old

Out With the Old

And in with the new!

One of my requests from Shannon's trip to the States was for new spatulas. I used to have three (secondhand) spatulas but during the Christmas season I broke one of them while making fudge. It looked a little better than the spatulas above, but not by much! So I've been pining after new, nice spatulas. Shannon's mom was kind enough to go to Williams-Sonoma to pick these up for me since they were on back order online. And then she decided to gift them to me, so I didn't even have to pay for them!

So are they all they're cracked up to be?

They're made of stainless-steel and silicone, and the silicone heads are removable and dishwasher safe.

They're heat resistant up to 500°.

I feel like I'm using real spatulas when I'm scraping the mixing bowl and not like I'm using a 2 x 4.

They're just pretty.

Yup, they're all they're cracked up to be!

Now I just need new knives...