I know it's the curse of the second child to always be in the shadows of the first.  Sophia's birthday and the visit from grandparents to celebrate it caused me to forget to post a few important things about Ella last week.  First, the girl's skill set has increased to include rolling over!  (Permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7075107154272138986&hl=en)
           
Don't get too excited, however... it's just front-to-back and she doesn't seem all that interested in doing more than lay there most of the time.

Sophia had a few firsts recently as well (although perhaps they won't make it into the official baby book like Ella's rolling over will).  Several "firsts" fall into the food category, although neither is something that I'm particularly proud of.  She had her first fortune cookies (yes, plural) this week.  I was a single parent Wednesday night while Esen was teaching and she and I were playing in her kitchen.  The ethnic play food set that she has contains fortune cookies and she remembered seeing the real deal sitting on top of the microwave in the real kitchen (left over from some Chinese take-out the week before).  She asked for them and I was feeling weak so I gave them to her.  She LOVED them (surprise) and I found her two fortunes to be interesting:
1.  There are many things in life that will catch your eyes, but only one that will catch your heart.
2.  The principle part of faith is patience.
Although Sophia was quite well-behaved for me that night, I can always benefit from a tiny message about patience (especially when it goes along with a nice cold beer).

I was craving a steak burrito from our awesome local Taqueria last night (because who wants to cook after a long week?) and Sophia was willing to drive over with me to make it happen.  She wanted what I was having since I announced my burrito preferences and I figured I would let her take a stab at eating a burrito.  She said, "Mama steak burrito; Baba steak quesadilla; Fofia chicken burrito" the whole way there and came pretty close to being able to order for us.  Her pronounciation is so deliberate with new words like burrito (Yes, she is finally saying her own name, but it oddly begins with a "F" sound, which is super cute).  Watching her eat it was really entertaining... so much so that I asked Esen to shoot a video (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9218045680838323000&hl=en):
   

Another Sophia first will help her to work off all those fortune cookie and burrito calories.  She got a new tricycle for her birthday from Ilke and Lulu that we hid in the garage all week because of the rain.  We got one sunny day, so it came out and she took it for a spin (sort of):

And some of the action in video form (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2247544313485355164&hl=en):
  
Thanks Ilke and Lulu... we still view Sophia as such a little girl sometimes, but she was clearly ready for this big girl bike!

Finally, Sophia also had her first art show at school.  Esen was able to make it over to the actual show, which highlighted the art of all the Early Childhood classes at Sophia's school, but I had to wait until they took it all down and sent it home.  Now it hangs proudly in our house.
The water color:

The finger paint:

The (odd, cookie-like) sculpture:


Sophia's birthday celebration continued well beyond the monkey cake.  At school, they made her a lovely crown that was not easy to get off of her head:

I tried to get a picture with her eyes open, but she just wasn't cooperating!

I also figured that I would take her picture with the pink pig, something that I haven't done since she was a year-and-a-half.  The change in the last six months is startling:

Based on a trip to the doctor for her two-year shots, she's still at the top of the height charts (although no longer moving away from the top growth line).  It's crazy to think of how much her life has changed in six months and how much she's developed in ways that you can't even tell my just looking at her.  Time sure does fly even though most days seem to be their own little marathon.

Posing in her party dress:



As requested, Sophia got her monkey birthday cake.  Although she helped make the cake earlier in the day, I waited until she went down for a nap to attempt my icing masterpiece.  Here is miss monkey in steps:



We sang happy birthday and cut her up into delicious monkey pieces:
(Permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2052214241446042072&hl=en)
 



Presents were opened, of course, and there was LOTS of playing with Grandma and Grandpa:

Tomorrow is her actual birthday, of course, so we've got her kosher treats all ready to take to school.  I can honestly say that I have no desire to ever throw a big, multi-kid birthday party.  I'm exhausted enough after just a monkey cake.  I'm sure that I *will* jump into this birthday party business eventually, but it sure is nice to be able to keep it simple.

Bustin' out... this might be the last time around for this outfit:


This smile looks identical to the one she gave me last month... she's got to be practicing this in the mirror when I'm not looking:


Sophia likes having Ella up at the table with her these days:

Especially this morning when we gave Ella her first taste of oat cereal:

She didn't really eat very much, but she also didn't make a fuss about having a spoon in her mouth.  Next time I'll try when she's hungrier.  We waited until 6 months to introduce Sophia to any solid foods, but an incident at school this week convinced me that maybe it was time to try Ella on a little cereal.  There was a plastic grocery bag waiting in Ella's cubby when we went to pick her up... it contained poopy clothes and the teachers had drawn a picture of an atomic bomb mushroom cloud on the outside.  :)  It wasn't the worst blow-out that I've seen after two nursing kids, but it was right up there.  This sort of thing has gotten increasingly common, so perhaps adding a little solid matter to the inputs will help solidify the output.

We played outside this morning during our few hours of sunshiney break from the rain.  Sophia sure gave Suzy some love:


And then she decided to have a seat next to me and be a little copycat... she wasn't able to cross her legs easily, but she got there a few times:
Ella was napping during this time and I really enjoyed a little quality time with my big girl.  She was in such a good mood and didn't test me once... I almost forgot how much I hated her just a few night before when she was a total monster.  :)  That monster turns two in just a few days... unbelievable.  We'll celebrate at home on Sunday and then she'll enjoy some special birthday love at school on Monday.  I'll post those pictures soon!

Sophia says so much these days and I really haven't done a good job of keeping some of you up to speed.  I have to share one favorite with you before she changes and I forget how much I like it.  Since the weather has been chillier in recent months, I always ask Sophia, "Do you want mama to cover you?"  For weeks she wouldn't let me cover her with her blanket, preferring instead to cuddle up with it underneath her.  Then one night after we tucked her in, she called out, "Mama!  Mama cover you!"  Now the bedtime ritual includes a "mama cover you" request, a "mama talk" request (that's where I recap everything she did that day), a "baba coming" request (that's when Esen takes my place and recaps her day in Turkish), and usually another "mama cover you" request when she moves and dislodges the blanket.

On a similar note, Sophia's teacher Ivory shared an interesting tidbit this week.  Apparently, Sophia regularly lists "Baba, mama, Ella, Suzy" for various reasons when she talks at school.  Ivory tells us that most kids repeat items in a list like this (Mama, baba, Ella, mama, baba, Suzy) or repeat the list over and over again, but that Sophia knows to only mention each of us once every single time.  I don't think this is a sign of genius or anything, but I'm hoping that it's a sign of awesome organizational skills (unlike her father!).  The other report that we're starting to hear a lot when we pick Sophia up is that she's the bossy enforcer at school.  When some kid isn't listening to a teacher, she goes over and (sometimes physically) attempts to force the issue.  Perhaps there's a career in law enforcement??  I wonder where she gets this bossiness from?  :)

Did I mention that we have no daycare on Monday, so I'm stuck with this one for another WHOLE day?!

I take it all back.  24 hours (and several beers) later, I've decided that Sophia is the devil.  I'm starting to research boarding schools now.  :)

Tonight Sophia requested a bath in the big bath tub (our bathroom) and wanted me to join her.  Given my lack of a shower this morning, I was happy to oblige.  I asked if Ella should join us and Sophia surprised me by agreeing.  As we added a slippery wet baby to the mix, Sophia worked to get Ella giggling and we were all treated to the sweetest baby laughter.  Although Ella let her first giggles out while we were in Turkey, tonight was the first all-out laughter and it was so clear how much these sisters already adore each other.

They might have runny noses and sleeping issues.  They might suck up every ounce of our energy and sanity.  But some days they are just the most beautiful, happy girls that leave me with a feeling of extreme gratitude. 

We've had a busy week at work... interviewing folks to fill two professor positions, which means lots of meals, meetings, and presentations with job candidates.  Esen and I didn't see each other at home until Thursday evening (lots of single-parenting this week), which is why I haven't posted any updates.  It's Saturday night and both girls are finally in bed, so I finally have a chance to remedy my lack of blogging.  We were over in Davis this evening to have dinner with our friends Bryce and Michal.  Their daughter Noa is 4 and was so sweet and patient with Sophia, who wants to follow Noa around, but isn't always brave enough to do so.  Noa is also a new big sister to baby Oren, who was born just a few weeks after Ella.  Here's a picture of the daddies holding the babies while the mommies tend to the older girls (or maybe we were just drinking wine at this point):

Don't they look thrilled? 

Because we were only hitting the road around Sophia's bedtime, I had her put on her pajamas before we got into the car.  Ironically, Noa also had some "monkey jammies" and the girls agreed to pose for me.  Of course, they couldn't coordinate their smiling enough for me to get them both smiling in the same photo:


In other news, we moved Ella into a few additional baby-holding implements.  We brought out the Jumparoo (pictures and video... mention koala slippers) and we also bought a second booster seat to move her up to the kitchen table with us at mealtime.  Ella's booster has the same jungle-themed toys as the Jumparoo:

Although she still leans to one side, she seems to like being included in the family meal (and we're happy to not have to hold her and eat one-handed!).

She's also getting strong enough to enjoy tummy-time with the boppy pillow.  Look at those blue eyes:


Here are some shots of the Jumparoo (and an action video, too).  Note the cute koala slippers Ella is wearing (thanks to her awesome Amce and Teyze down under).  Sophia is never far from Ella's side:



(Permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6543638167785845951&hl=en)    

Ella continues to impress with her vocals (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5256217175395400409&hl=en):
   
If you ask Sophia, "Hey, what's Ella saying?" she does a pretty good impression of these baby noises.

Sophia continues to work on her hide-and-seek... here she's playing the Turkish version (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6786425699153100614&hl=en):
  

Well, my blog post with details from our trip to Turkey is long overdue.  Blame it on the girls being sick, on the start of the semester, on the mountain of mail/bills/laundry to attend to among other domestic chores.  A week after returning home, I'm finally feeling like I might be getting a handle on everything... I've even managed to get caught up on some sleep (although that required going to bed around 8pm three nights last week).  I wish now that I would have written this post sooner because I've already forgotten so many little things that I wanted to share.  Perhaps I will remember more if I give you the information in list form (with some attempt to proceed chronologically).

1.  The airplane.  Well, we did such a good job talking about the airplane taking us to Turkiye before the trip that now ALL planes go to Turkiye (just ask Sophia's teachers, who are still hearing this every time a plane flies over the playground).  For a few days prior to our return trip, Sophia was willing to say that we were flying to "California", but all airplanes quickly returned to the uniform destination of Turkiye.  [NOTE to non-Turks: "Turkiye" is Turkish for "Turkey".  Refering to the country as "Turkey" is potentially confusing for the kids given the similarly named Thanksgiving main course, so we call "Turkey" "Turkiye" and "turkey" "hindi" (the Turkish word for the bird).  If this is too confusing for you, just move along.]

The flight there was pretty bad for us.  We timed the flight such that we'd be leaving Phoenix around 8pm (Sophia's bedtime) in the hopes that she would be encouraged to sleep much of the way to London.  That didn't work out for us.  Although she slept a bit, she was completely distraught when she'd wake up in her car seat on a plane.  There was much inconsolable crying and I swore off long-distance travel with toddlers many times in that 9 hour flight to London.  Because of the lack of sleep, she was impossible to deal with in London, where we had to wait in long lines, go through security again (i.e., part with Becky at the xray machine), and wait for our 3.5 hour flight to Istanbul.  Only Ella slept much on that long flight, so she was the only one in a good mood.  Thank goodness for small favors.  We arrived in Istanbul around 11ish at night and made it to the Onur house sometime after midnight.  Thankfully Sophia slept reasonably well that night despite the new surroundings.

2.  Jet-lag and sleeping.  I knew it would be bad... and it was!  For 3-4 nights after that decent first night, Sophia would wake up around midnight, we'd convince her to go back to sleep, and then she'd wake up around 3am requesting scrambled eggs.  You can't tell a hungry toddler to fall back asleep, so scrambled eggs she got.  After that, she'd be UP UP UP, which would of course throw off the next day's nap and bedtime... and so the vicious cycle goes!  She was sleeping in a toddler bed for the first time (can't believe I don't have a picture of her in it!), so I was grateful that she was willing to sleep there and only fell out once.  Even once her sleeping mostly regulated, we were faced with the predictable dilemma of having Ella in the same room.  When Ella would cry (which happens multiple times every night without fail), she would wake up Sophia, who was sleeping more softly than usual because of lingering jet-lag.  Our solution was for one of us to sleep on the couch two floors down with Ella.  This was pretty un-fun for whomever got stuck on the couch, but it was the only way to insure Sophia's sleep, which took priority because an over-tired two-year-old is much more unreasonable to deal with than an over-tired Jess or Esen (Esen might disagree with this point after 4+ months of dealing with an over-tired Jess). 

3.  Illness.  The kids were in daycare the week before we left.  They also spent many hours on airplanes breathing germy recirculated air.  Not surprisingly, both Sophia and Ella came down with colds shortly after we got to Istanbul.  This was fine until Sophia started spiking fevers and acting like a complete monster, which are, historically, signs that she's getting ear infections.  I had no desire to fly with kids with infected ears, so off to the doctor we went.  Let me just say before I go any further that I am extremely grateful that we were able to get in to see a well-respected doctor immediately and that the doctor is a long-time family friend (and Esen's childhood doctor).  I took a little break from my feelings of gratitude during the actual doctor's visit and for about 24 hours afterward, however, when I was pretty mortified over the way in which the kids were handled.  I guess I'm just spoiled by our nurses and pediatricians who have always tried to put Sophia at ease and have encouraged me to soothe her as they examine her.  The strategy employed by these nurses seemed primed for maximum-screaming and torment; Sophia was roughly undressed and sort of man-handled with not so much as an attempt by them to soothe or talk to her and Ella was calously lifted onto and off of the scale by only her ankles and head, which is how I imagine they weigh young pigs in an open-air Chinese market.  I expected Ella to scream going into this because she's a baby, but Sophia is old enough that she often responds quite decently when she is informed about what is going to happen and allowed to go at her own pace to some degree.  Because I was expecting something similar to our pediatrician's examination, I prepped her during the drive to the doctor that he would look in Ella's ears, in my ears, in Becky's ears, and then in Sophia's ears.  The exam was completely different and they just plowed ahead with their plan despite the fact that she got hysterical.  I'm not talking run-of-the-mill hysterical... I'm talking more hysterical than she was when they spent 5 minutes digging a splinter out of her finger (which was my previous worst-Sophia-medical-establishment benchmark).  If they had just looked into her ears and throat while she sat on my lap, there wouldn't have been any problem.  The only thing that kept me from crying was the knowledge that it would make it worse for Sophia, but a big part of me felt at the time that this was borderline abuse and that I should have yanked Sophia out of their hands.  I'm quite confident that she won't be permanently scarred by the experience or anything, but I will be because I didn't intervene.  It's one of those instances where you can already feel the regret building up inside of your head.  Although Esen wanted to make some sort of efficiency argument for the treatment because the waiting room was quite full, I actually think the whole thing took longer than it would have if they would have allowed me to calm my children.

The last thing I'll mention about the doctor's office was the completely bizarre decor.  Although it was an older building and most of the rooms of the office were in-line with the older, brick style, the actual office where the exam took place left you feeling as if you stepped into some futuristic film gone wrong (I immediately thought of the Buck Rogers show from my childhood)... complete with silver-upholstered mod chairs, some sparkly silver circles on the walls, and an uber-futuristic glass desk.  Although the doctor was wearing a lovely, clearly high-quality suit when he greeted us upon our initial arrival, I wouldn't have been surprised to see him in a silver lame' Star Trek type leotard in his exam room.  Esen was quite baffled as well. 

4.  The good stuff!  Despite the travel, the jet-lag, and the illnesses (which all occupied a good portion of our attention out of necessity), there were some good times, too.  Here are the highlights (complete with pictures where I have them):

(a)  Hide-and-Seek!  Who knew?!  Sophia knows how to play hide-and-seek, and we only found out by flying 7000 miles to Istanbul.  We were out walking around the compound and found a nice grassy area to play and pick daisies.  Suddenly she covered her eyes and began counting (sometimes English, sometimes Turkish)!



She and I and Ella would hide in the little circle of plants you see above, but as soon as Esen would get to 10 and come looking for us, Sophia would pop out and reveal herself.  She hasn't quite figured out the goal yet and can't contain herself to stay hidden!

(b) The Park!  Esen didn't think there would be public parks in Istanbul, but they were all over the place.  Sophia enjoyed her usual sliding and swinging, but in a unique place (one park was right across the road from the Bosphorus).  Here she is eating snacks in various parks, which is the only time we get a break long enough to take her picture:


(c)  A couple of outings.  Gulsen took us over to the largest mall in Istanbul with both girls.  The "children's area" turned out to be more of an arcade, which was too loud and crazy for a not-yet-two-year-old.  The funniest part was that there was this life-size, automated, roaring/screeching dinosaur near the exit that totally freaked Sophia out.  I thought she might be ok for a minute, but no way... she was genuinely scared... so scared that even a pet store full of cuddly little puppies wasn't appealing while that dinosaur was still in view.  She talked about that dinosaur for the rest of the night.  Apparently, when Sophia, Esen, and Orhan went back on another day to hit the bookstore, they encountered another object (she called it a Big Red Puppy, but it was just a guy in some sort of red costume suit) that also sort of scared her.  She's still talking about the Big Red Puppy to this day.  I wish I had pictures of both.  :)

We also went out with Orhan one afternoon to get fish and seafood for the big Paella dinner.  Esen finally got a turn riding in the back seat between the two car seats.  Doesn't he look thrilled?

The Paella prep involved some serious work:


Not being a big seafood eater, I enjoyed the champagne more than anything!  We toasted Ella...



5.  Other funny moments.
(a)  Minnos!  Sophia loved the cat and he tolerated her surprisingly well:


(b)  One thing that Sophia never got used to was how over-zealous Turks are when it comes to loving babies and little kids.  Total strangers routinely just approach babies/kids and interact with them... sometimes a hug is attempted.  Sophia, like most American kids I would assume, takes a little while to warm up to anyone so she was not having any part of this.  She freaked out on several visitors to the house and several strangers in the mall/airport who attempted anything.  She would just give them sort of a cross look and then burst into tears if they didn't take the hint.  Ah, just one of the many cultural differences that I wouldn't have necessarily expected.

(c)  Ella found her voice and her thumb on this trip, although I didn't capture all of her talking (loudly, bordering on screaming) on video.  She is rather fond of putting her hands in her mouth now that she can control them better.


d)  Sophia revealed a serious addiction to Little Einsteins.  Here she is lounging while she watches:

You didn't dare interrupt or she'd tell you to bugger off (in several languages... "No Mama!"  Hayir Baba!").  We were all so tired of the damn music after 10 days straight that I need a few years' break from Beethoven.  She's moved on and is now enamored with Elmo in Turkish.  Great.

Our trip home was much better simply because the kids slept.  This is ironic because we weren't traveling during the middle of the night or anything.  Sophia napped on the 3.5 hour trip over to London and then played so nicely in this great little children's area they have:

She met another little half-Turkish girl who was heading *to* Istanbul... they played nicely for quite a while:


It was sure nice to make it home, particularly because we didn't encountered any real trouble.  We had a lot more space on the London-Phoenix flight because it was so empty and that made a big difference, too.

The day after we made it home our neighborhood filled with cops and fire trucks, and we could hear helicopters circling overhead.  I figured there must be an accident down by the river (because this is the sort of response you see when someone drowns).  Then we saw the swat team truck drive by and could see that our street was closed off just a little ways down from our house.  Apparently there was some sort of police standoff going on for much of the afternoon with a guy who later turned out to be a drunk with a fake gun... of course, they didn't know that when they evacuated the neighboring houses.  I think that if they would have asked me to leave, I would have told them that I'd schlepped my kids around enough, thank you very much... and just stayed put.

Esen just learned from our neighbor that there was even more excitement while we were gone.  On the very night that we were flying to Istanbul, here's what happened in the yard next door to ours according to the police report:

"Stolen Property 5700 block of Carlson  01:45 hrs
Citizen called in a suspicious vehicle. Officers contacted one parolee who had stolen property in the car. He admitted to a second suspect in the area who was identified by papers in the car as having an extensive burglary history. At that same time an alarm sounded at the church nearby.  Officers located the outstanding suspect running and then hiding under an occupied house. After the suspect refused to come out, K9 was deployed and the suspect surrendered."

The church is just 4 doors down and, apparently, the police dogs nailed the guy in the yard next door to ours.  Suzy would have gone nuts!!  I guess we missed a pretty exciting show of police force, but I'm pretty happy that we weren't here and caught up in all that mess.