alcohol

I forgot how much I love beer until tonight! Batu went to sleep at 7:45 and I decided to have a Harpoon and watch the end of 60 minutes. And I have tomorrow off of work. Life is ok for these moments.

the burbs and spiders

Ever since we moved to our "grown-up" house in Newton, I continually find the creepiest types of spiders in our home. In fact, there is a small, furry tan one crawling along our den wall as I write. The other day Ozan killed something that looked like a mini-tarantula. I am scared of spiders, even though most of them are supposed to do good things like eat other bugs.

our trip to turkey

We were in Turkey from Sept 6th - Sept 21. Here is a quick summary and some highlights:

Arriving -

Batu had a 102 degree fever the day we left for Turkey. We loaded him up with Tylenol and he managed to sleep on and off during the first leg to Frankfurt with periods of screaming in between. Luckily we had the entire middle row of four seats to ourselves on the first leg. Ozan insisted that Batu could drink warm milk which had been sitting in my backpack for over eight hours. Batu drank it, then proceeded to vomit at the Frankfurt airport. Batu slept the entire flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul, and again from Istanbul to Izmir. All of our luggage arrived in Izmir. Happy day for us! And I didn't need to use Benadryl.

Staying -

The first week in Cesme was hectic, to say the least. Batu was miserable the first night and screamed all night long, mostly due to his nasal congestion. Relatives came in and out all day and night, and Ozan's mom served endless rounds of Turkish coffee and treats. Once the onslaught of relatives slowly dissipated, we got into a little routine which went like this: eat breakfast, play with Batu and Sarp, Batu naps, Erin and Ozan walk around Cesme or stroll to Migros (the supermarket, which has AC), eat lunch, go to the sea, eat dinner, put Batu to bed, go out for a walk in Cesme. It was so nice to go out at night for a beer, sans child.

Departing -

The trek back to Boston was not bad. Batu had recovered from his cold and was pretty perky on most of the flights. On the final leg from Frankfurt to Boston, the friendly Lufthansa attendant sat us in the bulkhead and hooked up the bassinet. Batu entertained himself in it for a few hours then slept for the remaining four hours. We got home around 9pm then decided to take a drive to get milk. Try finding an open store in Newton, MA after 9pm on a Sunday. We finally found a Walgreens in Newton Center. Batu slept from 11pm - 1am. I make him some oatmeal then put him back to bed around 3:30am. I don't even remember if I slept or not, but managed to drag myself into work on Monday.

A long night's journey into day

Batu did not sleep well last night, hence, mother and father did not sleep either. We put him down at 7:30pm. He rolled around for 1 hour only to launch into a hysterical crying fit. Ozan ended up holding him until he fell asleep around 9pm, then I proceeded to watch Project Runway. At 3:00am, Batu was crying because he still has a lot of nasal congestion from this lingering cold. Ozan had to hold him to get him back to sleep. At least he slept until 7am this morning. Not sure which is better, uninterrupted nighttime sleep with early-bird 5am wake-up, or interrupted nighttime sleep with normal, 7am wake-up. Only 16 more years until college!

Allergic to school?

Batu started daycare today. We refer to the daycare as "school." Around 9:15 am Ozan got a call from the "school" informing him that Batu broke out in the hives. Since I was working in NH today with the car, Ozan had to bike from our house to pick up Batu. Luckily Ozan was still home this morning. Ozan borrowed a stroller from school and walked to the doctors which is about 1 mile away. Apparently Batu had a reaction to the penicillin he took for his ear infection. After a few rounds of Benadryl, Batu seemed to be back to normal. Two good things came out of this (1) Ozan took a cab home from the doctor's and realized that we don't need a car seat for a cab, which will make our trip to the airport this Friday much easier (2) Benadryl makes Batu really sleepy.

bye bye bottles

Batu willingly drank his milk from a sippy cup the last two days, so we're officially "bottle-free!'' Now we need to work on getting him to sleep later in the morning! The 5:30 am wake-up call is killing me.

Why am I so tired?

My son sleeps through the night, but wakes up "every" morning at 5:30 a.m. On the positive side, it makes my weekend days so much longer, and I'm constantly amazed at all the wonderful things I can do in a 16-plus hour day like grocery shop, cook, clean, run errands, do laundry, and oh, yes, be a mom and loving wife (re-read with sarcastic undertone). Everyone says he'll change. When? College?