It was a great trip, but boy am I happy to be home.  Changing diapers without a changing table for 10 days is hell on the back, you know?!  Sophia was just great on the airplane.  While she wasn't much trouble on the plane, I can't imagine holding her in my lap longer than 3 hours.  How on earth are we going to survive the flight to Turkey!??! 

 

I've created an album (look to the right) of some of the better pictures from our trip, but posted the whole lot of them at Kodak Gallery if you want to take a look (http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=9aa8wca.1v6ww31a&x=0&y=7qy8us).  I know many of you also took pictures while we were there (of the baptism and other family gatherings).  Please share!!  I've posted a video below of my cute little grandparents on the day they met Sophia.

 

 

 

Today is packing day.  Sophia and I head to North Dakota tomorrow and Esen joins us next week.  This will be our first trip.  We haven't even had any sort of driving trip with her... jumping right into flying.  I'm a little nervous about flying alone with her.  It's surprising how "handy" an extra pair of hands is when dealing with a baby.  I feel a little sorry for whoever is sitting next to us.  I mean, she's a generally good and quiet baby, but who knows what she'll be like on a plane.  Also, at two feet long, she's going to hang over into the next guy's territory when I feed her.  Hopefully I won't be sitting next to a baby-hater.  :)

 

I promise to return in June with stories of our trip and lots of photos of our little Turkish angel (melegim).

Funny how I start to feel bad if I haven't written anything in a few days.  Am I worried that you all are feeling ignored?  Eh, maybe a little.  Am I worried that I'm not documenting every little thing that Sophie does.  Yeah, that's probably the bigger issue.  The bigger and more interactive she gets, the less amazed I am her every move than I initially was.  Talk about diminishing marginal returns (sorry non-econ people).  I mean, just a few weeks ago she couldn't get her hands up to her mouth and keep them there.  Today when I was giving her a bath, she had *BOTH* hands *IN* her mouth on purpose and continuously.  Her leg muscles and stability seem to really be improving as well.  She can now "stand" on your lap and keep her balance well enough in that position that your arms don't get too tired from holding her there.  She still isn't a Jumparoo pro, but it probably isn't that far off.  My picture taking has tapered off quite a bit as well.  I organize the pictures by date and the folder labeled "May" is embarrassingly empty compared to "April".  If this is happening with the first child, how skimpy will the documentation be for poor child #2?  (Relax... child #2 is a ways off yet.)  Now I'm beginning to understand why my friend Jodi, a second child herself, is over-compensating with her second baby to make sure that he isn't neglected in this fashion.  Sophie is sleeping right now, but maybe I'll take some pictures and/or videos this afternoon to try to make up for my lax attitude lately.

 

Just to update you... she is feeling much better.  In true chill-baby fashion, even her first cold was mild.  It's like she's breaking us in as gently as is humanly possible.  What a doll.  Also, since we did just have her to the doctor, you might be interested to know that she's up to 13 pounds and 9 ounces now, but not any longer.  Getting chunkier...

 

LATER... AS PROMISED!  Posted some pictures and videos.  I love the one picture of her with the frog... it's like she was thinking, "Oh dear!  You should hear the things this frog is whispering in my ear!"  Note of thanks to Sarah for this toy... she loves it now that it's no longer bigger than she is!

Little Lale has her first cold.  It is so sad... poor little darling has trouble breathing and has a hoarse little cry from coughing.  Nothing we can do for her except ride it out.  Here's hoping it passes quickly.  Not only is it hard to see her like this, but sick babies don't sleep well and get snot all over you.  :)

Little Lale finally made it to Fairy Tale Town, Sacramento's salute to Little-Bo-Peep, Robin Hood, the Three Little Pigs, and so many more!  We normally get together with my co-worker David and his son Ethan on Fridays... today Esen joined us, too.  And, as you can tell from the first picture, he was really, really, REALLY excited at the prospect of Fairy Tale Town (I believe his words when we first drove up to the entrance were, "Oh my God, that looks like a nightmare!" and then he proceeded to call it "Fairy Town").  I just enjoyed having him around to haul the baby around... my back doesn't hurt at all!  :)  After checking out Mary and her Little Lambs, walking through Sherwood Forest, and hanging out on the pirate ship, Sophia was totally asleep and Esen had vowed never to return.  I told him that this was just the first of many, many things that he would do with his daughter against his will.  :)

 

One last thought... check out the close-up picture of the two of them.  Do they have the same eyes or what?!  Badem gozlum... my almond-eyed pair.  :)

 

 

Here it is...

 

Q:  If a little girl's middle name is the Turkish word for tulip, how long does it take before her mommy buys her some sort of tulip-themed clothing?

 

A:  Apparently, 11 weeks.  See pictures below.  Note to the curious: no, the new kicks did *not* suddenly inspire Lale to start jumping in the Jumparoo.

 

Some of you might know that I do a great cougar impression.  I learned it from my college roommate's boyfriend and it has served me well for years and years.  For some reason I made the cougar noise for Sophie last night and her reaction was so funny that we had to capture it on film.  The lighting is horrible, but the last "take" shows her genuine cougar-terror pretty well.  I'm including a few of my attempts that only ended in giggles... there's something incredibly warped and funny about scaring the crap out of your kid with silly sound effects (wait, I think I hear Child Protective Services knocking on my door right now!).  NOTE:  "Take 3" was very funny, but my camera man was getting a little frustrated with my inability to perform, and the resulting video is not particularly clean.  :)  Enjoy!!

 

Cougar - Take 1

Some fine folks at Salary.com have conducted a little study... just in time for Mother's Day.  It concludes that both stay-at-home moms and moms who also work full-time outside of the home provide services at home that are very valuable... in dollar terms.  Here's a recap of the study that appeared on CNN...

 

Study: Job of motherhood worth $138K a year

Work consists of housekeeper, cook, janitor, CEO, van driver: pay experts.

May 2 2007: 4:01 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released Wednesday.

This reflected a 3 percent raise from last year's $134,121, according to Salary.com Inc , Waltham, Mass.-based compensation experts.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother's work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

A mother who holds full-time job outside the home would earn an additional $85,939 for the work she does at home, Salary.com.

Last year she would have earned $85,876 for her at-home work, it said.Salary.com compiled the online responses of 26,000 stay-at-home mothers and 14,000 mothers who also work outside the home.

 

So, what does this study really say?  If Esen had to pay someone to perform the tasks that I'm currently performing, it would cost him $138,095 per year.  Even when I go back to work full time in the fall, it would cost him $85,939 to hire out for what I do around the house.  These numbers seem a little high to me, but that's probably because he does a lot of "home production" too.  Maybe, if he wasn't doing *anything* at all to help out, the value of my "home production" would be that high.  What's sort of interesting to me is the difference between those two numbers... $138,095 - $85,939 = $52,156.  That figure implies that a stay-at-home mom shouldn't be willing to work full time unless she can earn at least $52,156 annually (because that's how much it costs to replace what she was doing at home when she was at home full time).  That number also seems high, but not out of the realm of possibility now that I know how much daycare alone costs for a year.  What this study seems to ignore is that when stay-at-home moms go back to work full time, things around the house slide.  It may be that $52,156-worth of home production is lost, but families certainly don't hire alternate workers to do all those things... they go without as clean of a house and as many home-cooked meals.  That's the real reason this number is overstated in my opinion.  Don't get me wrong, after a few months in the strictly "home production" business, I'm happy to see a nice fat dollar value attached to what I do.  The real question is whether this research gets translated into a better Mother's Day gift.  :P

 

Added Later:

To demonstrate just one of the many jobs that I do around the house, I've added pictures below of Sophia and I in our cherry-picking outfits.  We have a cherry tree on the side of our driveway and, although I've been begging my immigrant laborer to pick some cherries for us, Sophie and I finally picked a few after walking Suzy today.  Oranges and cherries... growing on trees and free for the picking... man, California is great!