Dinner... just Esen and I... *fancy* dinner with nice silver and fancy, delicious fish... with almost no warning!  It was so nice.  Melanie, our daycare provider, offered to watch Sophia tonight so that we could get a few hours together out on the town.  She came over, Sophia was apparently an angel, the rest is history.  It's so nice to have someone that Sophia already knows come to watch her.  She was smiling and unphased by us leaving, we didn't worry while we were away, so nice.  This must be what it's like to live near family and have grandparents nearby to eagerly babysit.  :)

 

NOTE ADDED LATER:  This was our appetizer and it is simply the most delicious, wonderful, fabulous rendition of what I already consider to be a classic... the tater tot.  Enjoy!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqza6IYSmU (Katie: Please add these to your repertoire.)

Sophia is certainly better these days.  She sucks down that pink amoxicillin like it is the most delicious nectar.  If you ask her, "Sophia, do you want some pink stuff?", she totally knows and gets anxious to take her medicine.  Silly kid.  All we care about is that it works!  I was diagnosed with a sinus infection yesterday.  I am also taking amoxicillin (although not in girly pink liquid form... thank goodness, otherwise I'd have to fight off Sophia!) and I am hoping to feel like a real human being again by the weekend.  Esen finally succumbed to our germs and fell sick yesterday.  His "sleep and drink more beer" approach to health and wellness seems to be working just fine for him.  :)

 

Here are a few pictures...

Sophia opening up some Easter presents from Grandma and Grandpa (including some of those dreaded PEEPS!!  Grandma thinks she's sooooo funny....):

 

And finally, we'll leave you with a video of a few minutes in the average evening... playing a little bit while we try to also catch the day's news.  Esen stopped the video before the strip tease was completely over... too bad... (permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5729301186569835952&hl=en)

    

 

1.  Sophia is still sick, but seems to be getting better.  As predicted, this has been a very UN-FUN weekend.  That was practically guaranteed by the fact that I got sick Friday night and have been feeling horrible all weekend. 

 

2.  It appears that Esen is going to live, however.  Despite his assurances that he had some skin cancer on his arm, the spot was confirmed by a doctor to be some good old fashioned, non-life-threatening eczema.  Good thing I don't have to listen to him tell me how I should and shouldn't be treating a "cancer patient" anymore.  That was getting a little old.  :)

 

3.  We've been looking at houses and still haven't found the perfect one.  We've found several that were very nice, but they come with awfully steep price tags.  If you have suggestions for how to win the lottery or successfully rob a bank, please let us know.  Too bad we don't want to live in one of the bedroom communities where all the foreclosures are... there you can get 2500 square-feet for a steal.

 

4.  What are the chances of this?  In the last few days, BOTH Esen and Sophia have been crapped on by birds.  I think this is completely disgusting and that I'm the lucky one, however, apparently this is considered *GOOD* luck in Turkey.  I say, fine... let the Turks be crapped on then!  Yuk!

 

5.  No cute videos of Sophia from this weekend, but there was this cute little gem on the camera from last weekend... ENJOY!

    

January and Sophia's first ear infections were just becoming a distant memory, when WHAMMO!  Another set of double ear infections hit us this week.  She's had a fever since Tuesday night and a nice runny nose nearly that long.  It's been a long week of not-so-nice sleep and too many tissues.  I decided that we weren't willing to wait out the weekend to see if she got better.  Good thing... the doctor confirmed ear infections pretty easily and we're back to filling her with pink medicine twice a day.  Last time it took 2-3 days before we saw any improvement, so I'm not really looking forward to our weekend.  Maybe she'll surprise us and I'll be able to post all kinds of cute pictures and videos of a happy Turkish princess.  Probably not though, so don't get your hopes up.

My Turkish class decided that we needed to get all of our Turkish significant others together, so we did that this weekend.  We held a potluck, so everyone brought something Turkish to eat.  It was fun.  The hosts live in quite possibly the tiniest house on the planet.  I think she said that it was 600-square-feet (ours is about 900-1000 to give you some idea).  All the food was served on the coffee table (because there's not really room for a dining room in a house that small), so keeping Sophia's little paws out of everything was quite a challenge.  In our effort to keep her entertained, she tried all kinds of new foods.  She had hummus and bread, kofte (Turkish meatballs), spinach soup, rice, white beans, and so much more.  We lasted for about two hours, which is pretty good that close to bedtime, and met some nice new Turkish/American couples to hang out with.

We suspect something strange is afoot because when have you ever seen a 1-year-old plow through this much broccoli?

(permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5459666908470588801&hl=en)

   

I don't think of myself as someone who is particularly easy to surprise.  I'm usually aware when someone is up to something.  Maybe it's that in my life with a toddler, my attention is constantly diverted elsewhere, but Esen really got me this weekend.  On Saturday, we just went about our regular business... typical morning (although it started earlier than usual), did some things around the house, went for a family walk in the nice spring weather, etc.  He was a little anxious for us to get back to the house when we were out on our walk, but I didn't really think much of it.  Shortly after we got home, however, there's a knock at the door and **SURPRISE** my awesome friend Michelle and her husband David are there in party hats yelling, "SURPRISE!"  Now, there are a few things you all should know in case you don't.  I used to refer to Michelle as my "best friend from grad school", which really used to piss her off because it implied that there were slim pickings and she was the best I could do in a crop of econ PhD losers.  Since we haven't been in grad school together for many years already, and we've continued to be really great friends, I've stopped using the "in grad school" qualifier.  Second, Michelle and David live in Greensboro, NC, so seeing them on my doorstep unannounced was a HUGE surprise.  Finally, although I'm aware of the fact that I have a birthday coming up in just a few days, it really hasn't been on my radar screen as any big deal.  Turns out that Esen contacted Michelle about coming out as a birthday surprise for me.  Michelle and David, newlyweds, happen to be in the process of making honeymoon plans when Esen contacted her.  They opted to go to Tahoe with a few starter days in Sacramento.  It couldn't have worked out more prefectly!!  The visit was just great.  I got to meet David, she got to meet Sophia, and we got to catch up in person (it had been two years since we'd seen each other in person!).  Thanks so much for fooling me and getting me in the birthday spirit!!

 

I forgot the camera at nearly every turn this weekend.  No pictures from our nice Mexican brunch at Zocalo (in the glorious Sacramento sun), no pictures from the park where we enjoyed throwing the frisbee around (well, at least until Michelle nailed Sophia with the frisbee), no pictures at the bed and breakfast (they stayed at the Amber House, where Esen and I were married).  We finally took some pictures after a big meal when we were exhausted:

 

Despite Sophia's less-than-thrilled face, she actually spent a lot of time on Michelle's lap (much to our surprise!).

 

I've got a few cute Sophia pictures that have been sitting in the camera.

1.  She's started to stand on things (particularly unstable things that would result in physical harm if she should fall, and she would *definitely* fall):

 

2.  Esen set up this picture.  He likes it because her face says, "Hey.  Don't judge me."  :)

 

3.  She likes to back up slowly and then plop on a lap (or a pillow or a dog).  Here's a rare moment where she sat still long enough to be read to *and* for me to get a picture of it!

 

OK, that's all I've got... I'm heading for bed.  That lost daylight savings hour still has me messed up.

In case you want to see the entire set of pictures that we shot, you can do so at http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?cg=207294587116860479.  If you need to log in to view, the email address I used is jhowell@csus.edu, the access code is 1a033b11a7, and the password is sophia!  We mailed some pictures (all around the world!) this week, so check your mailboxes!

Well, from the looks of her best picture of the day, Sophia sure thinks that *she's* #1 (or #6!?):

This shot, which I think is ultimately really appropriate for a recent 1-year-old, actually reminds me of American Idol where the contestants flash their number so you know which number to dial in order to vote.  "Vote for me!!  Baby #6!!"  :)  Can we just pretend that she's waving with one hand and indicating that she's 1 with the other?

 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but it's hard to get a picture of a picture without using a flash and it's just way too windy out to take them outside for better light.  I'll share the link to the "smile store" once they get our whole photoshoot uploaded.  To give you a taste of the others that we liked, here are a few more.  In this one, the upside down bow next to her and the smile on her face made her look like she had been up to something:

We also did a few family shots (which Esen LOVED!).  They should really serve beer to keep him smiling:

I'm especially glad that we took a few pictures of just Sophia and I... I feel like we have so few pictures together and that most of those involve bad hair and no make-up on me!

 

Keep an eye on your mailboxes... as soon as I get some time, I'll get these in the mail!

Some nights bathtime is full of giggling and splashing, but most nights she's pretty tired by the time we get to it and so she's nice and mellow.  Here's a video of her just chillin' in her bath, completely unphased by me squirting her (or trying to play with her for that matter!):  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6702132919070762222&hl=en)

     

 

After the bath, we usually enjoy a little snack and some play time on the floor.  She often tortures Suzy a little at these times, so we are constantly running interference.  Here's an example:  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2470701076836876010&hl=en)

     

 

Sophia had a few firsts this weekend.  She had her first pancakes, which she devoured:

Suzy, not surprisingly, got some too:

 

She saw her first beautiful sunset (at least, the first that she actually seemed to look at) thanks to a well-timed walk yesterday evening.  Sophia also had her first cartoon-character-style fall yesterday.  She was running on the hardwood floor after a toy bus when she slipped.  I'm not talking about any old slip... she slipped like a cartoon character slips when they hit a banana peel.  One foot of her footie pajamas lost traction and went out from under her and she came crashing down in one smooth and graceful motion.  If she hadn't wound up hitting her head pretty hard and screaming as a result, I would have laughed for more than a few minutes.  As usual, she's no worse for the wear. 

 

We're off to take some pictures at a studio today... the official 1-year-old pictures.  She's currently crying in her crib instead of taking her morning nap, so this post-nap photoshoot could be a total disaster.  I'll take some pictures of the pictures and post later.  Keep your fingers crossed that she chooses to smile in a few of them!