I finally got around to taking Sophia's picture with the pink pig.  When do I get to stop this?  Once you start, it's hard to stop... what if I miss a month and then I later regret it?  I suspect a second baby is the cure for this dilemma.  Don't you stop caring about stuff like this when kid #2 comes along?  That's what everyone with multiple kids seems to indicate.  Anyway, I keep finding my pink post-it notes and keep writing down the month and keep sitting her next to that damn pig.  I swear that she's thinking, "Why on earth does this woman keep sticking a pink post-it note on this pig and thinking that I'm going to leave it there for the camera?  Those days are OVER!"

Right?  Isn't that what her face says to you?  She's mocking me and my post-it note efforts.  Here's one where she at least held it so that you can read what it says!

Then she got a little serious for a second... probably just contemplating her get-a-way, which she made promptly!

 

It's been pretty warm here lately... around 90 degrees over the weekend and again today when we got home.  Sophia and decided to cool off with a little air conditioning and an icy treat!  (permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2250682383261603782&hl=en)

 

Hello everyone, this is your guest blogger Esen!  Aren’t you intrigued by my title?  What does blood sausage taste like?  Well, I had boudin noir for dinner tonight and figured I should include it into my guest blog.  I know it will make even the most sleepy blog followers read this entry before they turn off their computers.  Maybe it wasn’t the most kosher thing for a Muslim to eat but then I never claimed to be the best Muslim on earth J (For more on this delicacy, follow this link: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-blood-sausage.htm.)

 

On a side note, finally I found a catchy title for something I am writing… believe me, much better than the title of my other work: “The Role of Asymmetric Information Among Investors in the Foreign Exchange Market”, which I have to present tomorrow but instead I am writing a blog entry.   Anyway, I digress.

Today, I want to talk about Sophia Lale’s little quirks.  There are so many and sometimes they are small and not so significant, but we find still them amusing.  For example, a few weeks ago she decided to add penguin march to her walking repertoire.  She would do it occasionally and I think it amused her.  But recently, she must have decided to join the Red Army since she started walking like a Russian soldier (I am not sure she is working-class enough to join the Red Army but decided not to tell her that).  Sometimes, we will be sitting in a different room and I will hear loud footsteps approaching us accompanied with a constant “Baba”.  She did not develop the swinging motion of her arms to accompany her march yet but I suspect that may be right around the corner.  On a second thought, it might not be such a bad idea if I get to be the dictator or the Tsar in this setup.  She could be my red army and we could hunt down the bourgeoisie (read cats) together.  For more images on Russian soldiers, check out the pictures I posted below.

 

What else?  There are so many but a lot of them go unreported.  Some of you are lucky to see all these during video chats but she does not follow equal opportunity rules and she is not as cute in front of the camera every time.  One other thing she got into the habit of doing is climbing up on the couch by stepping on our feet or a pillow.  Once she climbs, she is cute until she wants to reach for the Jasper Jones print (y’all know what I am talking about, the humongous and colorful print of the US that covers half of our living room).  When she reaches for it, she knows she is not supposed to touch it so she turns around and looks at us trying to make sure we are watching the mischief act she is about to commit.  She is quite of a handful sometimes and kind of reminds me of uncle Ilke in that way. 

 

Of course everything she does is not always entertaining or even cute.  She also got into the habit of driving us crazy after her baths.  Even if a bath goes well and ends well, this girl does not want to have any clothes put on her after bath; not even a diaper.  When I lay her on her changing table, she will cry her lungs out; as if she is in the lone star state and heading for the chair.  She will use her claws to hold on to me and will not quiet down for anything during the process of us putting on her diaper.  None of us can explain what the reason might be and this happens way too often to consider it an unlucky night.  Maybe the girl wants to be a nudist, who knows. (Speaking of nudists, this reminds me of a movie I watched some years ago, check it out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084737.) 

 

Overall, we actually had a fun weekend.  She was very cute to play with and had perfect naps.  She also never gave us a problem about going to bed in time and staying asleep.  She was also mama’s girl this weekend, always trying to be with her, if not on her.  Once in awhile she would say “baba” if I leaved her sight but that is nothing compared to how bad she feels when mama is not around.  She is also cute in the sense that everything around her is either “baba” or a form of “baba”.  Even “mama” becomes “bama” sometimes.  Sometimes it is Suzy who gets to be called “baba” sometimes it is just the TV or a simple t-shirt.  I think she knows I am the “baba” but so is many other things in her world (makes me feel very special!)

 

I guess I’d better get back to working on my presentation for tomorrow.  I will try to appear more often with my guest blogs but then again, it is much easier to read them than to write them.  Maybe next time it will be Suzy blogging and you will see everything from her perspective J

 

Oh, one final thing.  Those who are still wondering what blood sausage tastes like, it tastes very metallic (almost irony) and I can swear I also tasted some barley in there.  I didn’t need more than one but am glad I tried it.  I will make sure Sally and Katie try it next time they are in France J Check out the picture below to see how it is made :)

 

Sophia goes through phases.  Sometimes she's independent, sometimes she's needy.  Although she constantly says, "Baba!  Baba?  Baba" in various tones of voice, sometimes it's all about the mommy time.  Lately she needs to be near me... touching me.  Most of the time that's really annoying, but occasionally it's endearing, too.  This first series of pictures shows you why Esen is usually the one to cook dinner.  When I do it, I have an extra appendage:

Now I know she looks adorable in these pictures, but it's much more common for her to be crying insanely until I pick her up.  See how that might be just a little annoying?

 

Last weekend Sophia had a fever for several days, so we took her to the doctor on Monday and she was diagnosed with ANOTHER ear infection (that's the 3rd for the year, for those of you keep score).  Needless to say, we've had a cranky baby girl on our hands for quite a few days in a row as a result.  Tonight she was finally back to her usual cute and sweet self.  It was such a pleasure that I couldn't bear to leave to drive to Davis for my Turkish class.  It was definitely better to stay home and enjoy her.  We even did a little "work" together on our laptops:

 

And just when I thought the evening couldn't possibly get more enjoyable, I took her into her room, put her into her crib, and she rolled over and went to sleep without a single peep.  Can you say, Heaven!?  I think I should go play the lottery or something.

Every year UC-Davis hosts a sort of campus-wide open house where they showcase all the different departments and such.  There's music and food and plenty of interesting animal exhibits.  Last year it was pouring rain, so we skipped it, but this year the weather couldn't have been nicer!  We got there after Sophia's morning nap and so we ate a little lunch right away.  Despite the fact that she had already eaten, the little food leach sidled up to me and shared some of my BBQ sandwhich.  She quickly moved on to Esen and tried to steal some of his food, too.

 

Next we headed over to the "Doxie Derby" where little dachshund wiener dogs are put into different colored jackets and raced across the gymnasium floor.  It's really quite exciting... lots of heats among full-sized and miniature dachshunds, and then the full-size champ races the miniature champ in a final race.  We didn't make it that long, but we did get to see the winner of the full-sized dachshunds.  No pictures because we were mostly holding Sophia so that she could see.

 

Then we headed outside to watch some more awesome dog stuff.  First up, sheep-hearding boarder collies:

I got the impression that Sophia was taking notes so that she could better heard the kitties around in the back yard.  From there, we moved over to some fly-ball and agility courses.  I think Sophia really liked these because the dogs were just on the other side of a fence so she could see everything pretty well  right from her stroller.

There were certainly more things to see, but we were already about an hour after her usual nap time and she refused to fall asleep in the stroller, so we headed home.  It was a nice couple of hours, although (if I'm being honest) I would have definitely preferred just being there with Suzy.

 

I have a couple of videos that I've been slack about posting...

The first is some outdoor footage of Sophia chasing kitties and dog toys around in the backyard.  She's pretty much a better at fetch than Suzy is at this point... certainly more enthusiastic and reliable.  :)  (permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=427712626448342057&hl=en)

      

 

The second one is of Sophia climbing on her little chair.  She loves this and has no fear, so we try to stay nearby to prevent her from face-planting on the hardwood floor (permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4222402518985565379&hl=en).

      

 

Finally, I thought I'd have a nice little soccer clip for you, but Sophia wouldn't cooperate.  Since Esen is constantly playing around with her stuffed soccer ball, she's started to kick it a little bit.  I swear I saw tears in his eyes the other night as she was doing this.  :)  I'll keep trying to capture our future soccer champ on film. 

 

 

This weekend Sophia has demonstrated that she likes both donuts and eggplant (not necessarily together), two things that Esen doesn't really like.  At least she takes after me a little bit...

Since Sally was the only person to officially participate in my April Fool's multiple choice exam (she scored a 100%!  what a student!), she does win a prize (but only because she requested one).  Prize yet to be determined (lower your expectations, Sals).  The exam was designed to confirm that "monster #2" is, in fact, on the way and due to arrive on September 29th.  I'm not really sure who all reads the blog, so I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed. 

 

Here are several somewhat outdated pictures of "M2" (somehow I don't think that he/she really looks LESS alien now than at 13 weeks when these were taken):

 

The second one is down right creepy, no?  Holy ALIEN BABY!  Actually, Sophia looked just as freakish in-utero and she turned out OK, so I'm not really that worried.

 

Answers to your questions:

1.  I'm feeling fine (except for a lingering cold/sinus infection that is the fault of monster #1 rather than monster #2).

2.  I think we will find out the sex this time.  That ultrasound is scheduled for May 12th, so please be patient until then!

3.  I don't care whether we're having a boy or girl (although the practical side of me can't help thinking about all those pink clothes we already own).  I suspect Esen feels the same as long as the kid plays soccer.

 

Any other questions that I'm forgetting?

Since Esen took Sophia to a Turkish picnic this afternoon, he decided that he would be willing (in a twist-his-arm sort of way) to balance her out with some German culture in the evening.  Fortunately the local Turn Verein was hosting it's annual Bockbierfest tonight and our friends Kace and Walter (a real-live German) were there to celebrate with us.  Even when he was on his second pitcher, Esen continued to insist that he was "taking one for the team" by letting me show Sophia some of my German culture.  How incredibly generous of him in his just-beyond-tipsy state.  I noticed that he didn't complain about having a designated driver for the brief ride home, however.  :)

 

Although it was much easier at Oktoberfest when Sophia wasn't mobile, she did pretty well for about an hour and a half. 

She found the perfect sized ledge to sit on because those metal folding chairs are just not very toddler-friendly:

 

Esen took a great picture of her contemplating some rock climbing:

 

She found the sweetest little 7-year-old pretzel girl to play with:

 

 

And she even got to take a few turns around the dance floor with her mama.  Esen got a very dark video of us doing a waltz... you can track us pretty well thanks to the glow toy that our favorite pretzel girl gave her.  (Permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-957795628414699103&hl=en)

 

Our polka was much better, probably because of all the necessary polka-woo-hooing (although I almost made her throw up the bratwurst with all that bouncing around!).  I heard the "In Heaven there is no Beer Polka" and just couldn't help myself!  (Check out this rendition to see for yourself:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb1MOCpAoaw&feature=related... it's quite infectious.)  After a few dances with the 20+ pounder in my arms, I was winded and ready for bed myself!

on a Saturday... for, like, multiple hours.  Seriously, I cannot remember the last time this happened and it is so incredibly wonderful!  Esen took Sophia to a picnic with some Turks and gave me the option of staying home.  I suppose I should have joined them.  The weather is beautiful, I'm sure she'll be cute playing with other cute Turkish kids.  We don't know any of these people yet and they could turn out to be good friends.  Still, I'm totally comfortable with him being in charge of the initial friend screening and getting a little quality father/daughter time in the process.  I'm supposed to be working on some PowerPoint slides for my research presentation Monday.  Wanna know what I'm doing instead?  Eating ice cream... in the middle of the day... all alone.  Awesome.  Mmmmmm....

Think back a year... do you recall the baby unibrow?  C'mon, how can you forget?  I'll still never forget the phone call that I got from a girlfriend trying to reassure me that Sophia was still cute even with the excessive eyebrows that popped up seemingly overnight.  :)  Boy, Sophia sure wouldn't sit still long enough to let me draw on a unibrow this year.  I'm not sure I could top the unibrow anyway.  I peaked too soon... I'm just not creative enough to fool you that well year after year.

 

So, this year I've decided to do a multiple choice April Fool's Day.  Let's see if you can pick out the April Fool:

 

a.  Esen has chosen to blow off our summer trip to ND (for my grandparents' SEVENTIETH wedding anniversary) to hop over to Dublin to drink Guinness.

b.  Sophia has indicated that her likely career choice is *NOT* economist, but rather "Evel Knievel style stuntwoman" complete with hands-free motorcycle driving.

c.  Suzy has threatened to run off with the neighbor's dog, Arlo, and live in a peaceful baby-free zone.

d.  Jess has agreed to birth another half-Turk in Esen's quest to field an All-Onur soccer team and she's due in late-September.

e.  The whole family has decided to summer in Fiji to escape the stresses of Sacramento living.

 

There you go... hope you do better than my typical student.  Answer in the comments section please.