Better late than never, right?  Well, these pictures were taken a few days ago, so they're less than a week late... that's pretty good for me these days!  I didn't get any standard pictures of her with the pink pig, but I figure these will also give you a chance to tease me about how HUGE my belly is getting!!

In the third picture, the pink pig is under her shirt so that she has a big belly like mama!  Funny, huh?  Yeah, less so for me...

 

Other random announcements/information/miscellaneous tidbits:

1.  When Ilke and Lulu bought us (I mean, Sophia) that inflatable swimming pool, they couldn't have known how much we'd enjoy it!  Fortunately, they were kind/smart enough to also send an electrical pump to inflate it!  We use that pump pretty often just to keep it nice and firm and Sophia LOVES to be in charge of holding the pump.  Her fascination with it has extended to after-pool time as well, and she has found yet another practical use for it.  See for yourselves (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2673676741566727249&hl=en):

      

I think that once her hair grows in a bit more she's got a real future as one of those Pantene commercial girls.

 

2.  Post-swimming nudity continues to be popular.  We finally convinced her to put on at least a diaper after her butt hit the concrete tonight (before that it was pink crocs only).  Esen took this series of photos tonight, which I just have to share because they soooo accurately capture her silly and fun personality:

 

3.  Speaking of Esen, tonight he earned himself a serious nomination for husband/father of the year.  I've been increasingly exhausted in the evenings and tonight he actually sent me to bed to lay down for a bit while he entertained Sophia and did about ten other chores/tasks that often wait until after she's in bed.  I've said from the beginning that he'd be lost without me, but it's absolutely the other way around at this point.  Thank you, honey.

 

4.  Animal noises... they must be practicing animal noises at daycare because Sophia is starting to make them more frequently.  As recently as last weekend, we would make a cow noise and she would point to the cow, but she wouldn't moo herself.  Last night she moo'd without me moo'ing first!  That might not seem impressive to you, but remember that this kid doesn't say much yet, so a moo, a baa, and monkey noises are real progress!  Actually, the cutest is the roar/growl that she does for lion/cougar/big cat of your choice.  Esen shot a video of some of this animal noise interaction, but it's sort of hard to hear the details.  Note that we're also still working on her dance moves, so there's some shoulder-shaking going on.  :)  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=928953563506751797&hl=en)

  

 

5.  Tonight night WE HAVE A BABYSITTER.  One of the student teachers from daycare is coming over.  Sophia has taken to Laura since her first day at the Sac State daycare center, so we figured that she'd be a good candidate.  In addition to our previous in-home daycare provider, Melanie, we're hoping that Laura will be another person we can call in an emergency... like if I go into labor early or something.  We're not sure what we'll do besides go out to dinner, but we're going to come home by 9pm so that Laura doesn't have to put Sophia to bed.  This first time we'll just let them play and see how it goes.  Hopefully we won't have any horror stories to share!

What made it nice?  Just the right combination of napping for me, a general good mood for Sophia, some quality family time, and a little bit of socializing with other adults. 

 

As I mentioned last post, Sophia started her breathing treatments this weekend.  We decided that distraction was the easiest way to keep her seated with a strange contraption in her mouth, so Esen pulled out his laptop and found various youtube goodies for her to watch (Muppets, Disney, and a variety of other animated stuff in various languages... I still can't get the German Gummy Bear Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0sIwcAi1A) out of my head... check it out, it's not AT ALL addictive.  :)  Here's a video of Sophia in action.  We're working on getting her to shake her shoulders as part of her normal dancing repertoire so that she doesn't just jump around in circles.  (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6403649275316378669&hl=en)

I'm happy to report that the medicine doesn't turn her into Satan or a kangaroo.  We'll see if it actually helps to finally clear up her lungs.  

 

We've been spending a lot of time in the pool in the early evening.  We fill some water from the hose and then Esen brings out some buckets of hot water to make it like a big bathtub.  My primary objective in using the pool more was to get her more comfortable in water, but there have been some other nice side effects.  First, it's actually nice family time... all three of us fit quite comfortably.  Second, it's sort of relaxing to just play in the water even for us (especially after a day at work).  Third, it avoids having to do a separate bath for Sophia.  I even brought in a travel-sized shampoo and washer her hair the other night!  She likes to go skinny-dipping and so far has been kind enough to not poop in the pool (that said, we're usually careful to take her in without a diaper when we know she's pooped recently).  I risked the camera to get a little video of some pool action... (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6581521164968895363&hl=en):

     

Since this was taken, Esen's been teaching her to put her face in the water and blow bubbles.  We've also started to get her to float on her back a little bit (especially when the pool is more full). 

 

I also snapped a few pictures after pool time.  Drying off in Baba's arms in the sunshine:

 

Some cute self-snapped pictures with Mama:

In that last picture, I think it's incredibly obvious that she has Esen's eyes more than mine.  I've had people say that they still can't tell, but I think these pictures are proof.  Those almond-shaped eyes are all Baba!!

 

After swimming, Sophia likes to go on a tour of the backyard and insists on company.  As you can also see in the next video, she's gotten into the sidewalk chalk... and so has Esen (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6634812233631308145&hl=en):

     

 

Ahh... so sweet:

 

"Helping" Baba clean all the toys out of the pool:

 

And no evening in the backyard would be complete without some play time with SUZY!!

 

In action (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3064703289353749093&hl=en):

     

 

Our evenings are also more enjoyable now that we have such a nice, comfortable place to sit!  Esen demonstrates:

He made me a mostly-virgin mojito since the mint we planted is seriously flourishing and needed to be put to good use!

 

We finally entertained some friends this evening... enjoyed a nice dinner outside with David and Jenn.  We moved Sophia's little booster chair out to one of the patio chairs and she ate with us.  When she was done, she just ran around with Suzy while we leisurely finished our meal.  It was ideal!  I might have to invest in a tray to help carry stuff back and forth from the kitchen, but otherwise our outdoor meal was exactly what we hoped it would be.  Once we moved the gathering indoors, Sophia proceeded to enslave our guests into reading books to her on the couch.  I think she was happy to get a new take on animal noises (David's elephant is going to be awfully difficult to replicate!)  David hadn't really seen her or spent time with her in quite a while and was amazed at how much of a real-live little person Sophia is now.  It's true.  I suspect many of you would be amazed at how much she really understands and how much fun she is when she's comfortable and on her own turf.  Although I'm still content with her mostly silent responses (head nods/shakes, sign language), I do also really look forward to hearing what's going on inside that pretty little head of hers.

 

1.  My Grandma:  Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts/prayers/support.  My grandma had surgery on Wednesday and, despite a few bumps in the road that day, she appears to be recovering nicely.  We still don't have enough information to know what her long-term health will be, but at least she seems to be on the road to short term recovery.  She's never had surgery in all of her 90 years... leave it to her to be able to pull that off!

 

2.  Sophia:  One month since she first started with the latest runny nose and cough (and after a round of antibiotics for ear infections), she's still going!  That kid's got stamina, huh!?  We took her back to the doctor this past week and since she's still got the cough and wheezing, we're going to try some inhaled medicines to try to clear up her lungs.  We sure hope that Sophia views the nebulizer as a fun toy to put in her mouth (rather than the medicine dispensed in mist that it truly is) otherwise we could have quite a challenge on our hands.  We've waited until the weekend to begin so that we could observe how she was once she started the medicine... apparently it makes some kids bounce off the walls. 

 

3.  Lucy:  One half of our kitty-cat duo spent the afternoon at the vet thanks to a late night visit from a hoodlum neighborhood cat.  Since we moved in, we've had regular backyard visits from a really rough looking white and black cat... he looks like a stray and has no collar.  Suzy usually does a good job of chasing him off, so we had hoped that he would take the hint and just avoid our yard.  Well hoodlum cat visited in the middle of the night and attacked poor Lucy.  Suzy chased the cat off (and woke up both of our nearest neighbors in the process) and I didn't know until this morning that Lucy was injured.  She wouldn't even let me examine her back leg, which she wasn't putting any weight on.  Turns out she was bitten and the tendon is exposed in two places on her poor little back leg.  Sissy cat was probably just trying to haul her fat ass away from the intruder when he attacked.  So, both kitties have been moved into the garage until we figure out how to keep them safe.  In the meantime, I've got both pain medicine and antibiotics to administer twice a day... that's just what I needed.  (For those not in the know, this involves me sitting on top of Lucy and jamming a liquid dropper down her throat... all after I catch her.)  We'll ask around to see if anyone owns the cat, but I suspect a few people just feed him and nobody will actually claim ownership.  Not sure what we'll do to keep him out of the yard.  Too bad we don't know anyone that owns (and knows how to use) a pellet gun.  Oh, yeah, that's right... WE DO!  Stu, get out here and do your thing!  :)

 

OK, I promise to try to take some pictures and videos this weekend.  Sophia has adopted a few new cute mannerisms that I'd like to share if I can get her to do them on camera.  Stay tuned... have a great weekend!

I'd like to tell you what the heck I've/we've been doing, but the last week is a bit of a blur honestly!  Well, I guess there have been a few things keeping us busy:

1.  Finding daycare for Sophia,

2.  choosing names for M2,

3.  being a little social,

4.  trying to get everyone healthy,

5.  trying to be a little productive at work, and

6.  the never-ending unpacking and new furniture buying that really isn't actually taking place.

 

As most of you know, Sophia has been on campus with us this summer at Sac State's child care center.  It's great!  After some expected adjustments, we've been really happy with them and Sophia sure seems to be as well.  Because our previous daycare experience was an in-home daycare provider, I wasn't sure how we'd feel about a daycare center (more kids, more teachers, different atmosphere).  This one is really well-run, clean, staffed with friendly teachers and student-assistants, and so close to our offices.  I sure wish we could keep her there.  Unfortunately, the campus child care center is there to serve Sac State students primarily and there are no openings for faculty members' kids in the fall.  We'll stay on the waitlist and hope that it works out for us next year I guess.

 

Given our recent experience with a daycare center, we weren't sure whether we wanted Sophia to move to another center or another in-home option, so we looked at both.  After plenty of phone calls and a handful of visits, we found one of each that we liked (at least on the first pass).  The center is actually a Jewish school (Shalom School) that provides infant care all the way through 6th grade.  We figure that we already have Christianity and Islam covered, so why not add a little Judaism to the mix?  The in-home option is fairly close to our old house and the provider is a nice midwestern-raised woman who seemed friendly.  Sophia was with us on Saturday when we visited her, and she really seemed comfortable getting down and playing with the toys and in the yard (which is rare... usually she's at least a little more tentative in a new environment).  Well, we decided to go back to the in-home place today so that we could see the other kids that go there and meet the full-time assistant that is there during the week.  We had visited the Shalom School on a weekday and so we got to observe/meet all the teachers and the kids.  We care a lot about peer effects... I figure if Sophia is surrounded by illiterate hoodlums, she's likely to pick up their nasty habits, so I'd much prefer her to be around articulate angels.

 

So we went over to Gail's house this morning (Gail is the in-home provider).  Esen and I agree that there were sort of three defining moments where we knew this wasn't the place for Sophia.  They are listed in order of increasing severity (at least in our opinions):

(a)  The full-time helper (Denise) appeared to be a pretty standard middle-aged white-trash type.  She was nice enough, so I didn't judge her too harshly by her general appearance.  Within minutes of meeting her, however, she offered up the fact that prior to this job she had been a manager at Pizza Hut until she hurt her back and couldn't work anymore.  I'm pretty sure (based on repeated observations) that the care of babies and toddlers requires a fairly strong back.  Plus, it seems to me like she might have offered up some song and dance about how much she loves children, but she kind of made it sound as if she'd prefer to still be at Pizza Hut.

(b)  There was an additional assistant there... a college student (presumably in some child development / teaching field?).  We were watching a couple of little boys play in the dirt while talking to her (it was officially a dirt pit, not a sandbox) and I made a snarky comment about boys and dirt.  Esen replied that playing with dirt was better than playing with fire (which is definitely true).  Our little college co-ed piped up that she was quite the little pyromaniac as a kid... that she used to sharpen all of her colored pencils and then take the shavings outside and set them on fire.  She said all of this while one of the little girls (maybe 7 years old) was standing with us and listening.  I guess they haven't gotten to the point in her classes where they mention that it might not be a great idea to give kids additional ideas about how to hurt themselves and burn down their parents' houses.

(c)  Here's the real winner... the point where we almost couldn't contain ourselves.  Gail (the primary provider) was in the kitchen preparing a snack for the kids so we went in to chat with her about some issues that we encountered with our previous in-home provider.  As the kids came inside and got cleaned up, the following conversation occurred:

Little boy: [tugging politely on Gail's arm] "Where's my gun?"  (spoken in the best redneck southern accent I've heard since coming to CA)

Gail: "Oh, honey, I put that away because I think I'd prefer you to play with that just at home."  (aside to us that the miniature redneck had brought a toy gun with him yesterday)

Little boy: [looking completely confused, but with a blank sort-of-dumb stare] "But it ain't real..."  (again, his accent was so authentic I could hardly believe my Virginia-trained ears)

Gail:  "Well, not all kids can tell the difference between real guns and toy guns, so why don't we just play with the water guns here, ok?"  (and she hugged him when he reluctantly agreed)

 

Now, Esen and I both agreed that Gail's responses were appropriate and delivered in a polite, non-condescending manner.  It's not that I fault her... it's those pesky peer-effects we're worried about.  Am I afraid of a little southern accent?  No, not really... but it is a little alarming to find it HERE.  It's also somewhat interesting that the little gun-toting redneck child was Denise's (of Pizza Hut fame) grandson.  Hmmm....  It was honestly a little bit of a fight for me to say a polite good-bye and thank-you-for-your-time.  As we hit the sidewalk, Esen said to me, "I have one word for you... Shalom!"  :)  We'll be enrolling Sophia at the Shalom School and happily practicing Hebrew with her if she's stays there long enough to get to the age-3-and-over classroom.

 

I've been a little slack about taking pictures lately.  I keep meaning to bring the camera outside with us in the evenings when Sophia is happily chasing Suzy and the kitties around the backyard.  Now that we have some patio furniture, it's just so relaxing to sit out there at the end of the day that I can't move.  I did shoot a little video of her eating this past week.  She has gained a TON of independence in the category of feeding (thanks, we suspect, to a combination of age and the norms of lunchtime at daycare).  Nearly everything put in front of her is followed by an adamant "MINE!", which means that she wants to do it herself.  Thus, we've moved almost exclusively to (1) foods that stick well to a spoon and (2) foods that aren't awfully messy finger foods.  Her meals are much more likely to involve starch (potatoes or pasta) and yogurt (the thick, full-fat kind), although we do still try to sneak in some broccoli and plenty of fruits (which are widely available right now).  Anyway, here's some video proof that she's making progress (note that most of the yogurt goes in).  She still hasn't settled on using her right or left hand... she prefers a combination (also a combination of fingers and spoon usually).  I'm beginning to understand why families with small children go through so many paper towels.  Buy stock in Bounty, my friends.

(permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4169223167552611567&hl=en)

   

Who knew it existed with a one-year-old?

 

4:30 - Pick up smiling Sophia from daycare.  She took a two hour nap, is in a good mood, and there's no crying in the car on the brief drive home.  We have a snack and play a bit.

5:30 - Esen and Sophia go to the grocery store, leaving me in the house alone (for the first time since I can remember) and I get about a 15 minute nap on the couch after watching the news.

6:15 - My Turks return and we all play outside in the cool evening air.  Sophia manages *not* to fall and further destroy her scraped-up knees. 

6:45 - Sophia and I go in for a bath.  The only tears happen as her knees hit the water, but then it's fun times... even when it's time to get out.

7:15 - We all sit down to dinner TOGETHER (thanks to plenty of leftovers in the frig) and Sophia eats like a teenage boy.  I can only assume that she will be four feet tall by the end of the month if she keeps this up (she also ate FOUR pancakes for breakfast this morning).

8:00 - Coloring and reading in the living room, additional snack of animal crackers and peaches, some more playing in the backyard before dark.  Her mood and ability to stay upright while chasing kitties is miraculous given the time of day.

8:30 - Five bedtime books and into the crib without a peep around 9pm.

 

If you had asked me to describe a more perfect four hours, I'm not sure it would look more different than that.  I know better than to think it will ever be repeated, which is why I wanted to write it down.  I'll read this post on the bad days of tantrums so that I know perfection is possible when you least expect it.

As I was picking up Sophia from her new daycare here on campus the other day, one of the other mothers of a girl in Sophia's class (Olivia... Sophia's arch-nemesis... more on this in a sec) asked me what a baba is.  I explained that Baba was Turkish for father and that Sophia's daddy is Turkish, so she uses words from both languages.  Apparently, several of the kids have picked up Sophia's use of the word.  In fact, when Esen drops her off every morning, some of them greet him with "Baba!"... he's the whole classroom's Baba now.  :)

 

Olivia is this adorable little chunky blonde who is a few months older than Sophia.  Olivia has been at this daycare since she was little, so she was the comfortable, well-adjusted kid when we started there (all the other newcomers were clearly upset relative to Olivia).  She is very friendly and has a crush on Esen.  It takes her mere minutes to notice when he's arrived and then she immediately makes a bee-line for him, jumps on him, and proceeds to make Sophia very jealous.  We also suspect that she's the biter (not sure that I mentioned that Sophia was bitten by another kid a few weeks back... and they don't release the identity of the biter to the family of the bitee).  Yesterday Esen sat down to read with Sophia for a few minutes before leaving her and Olivia apparently sabotaged the entire thing by picking out other books and pushing herself on him.  You should have seen the look on Sophia's face when Olivia first flung herself into Esen's arms... pure shock and disbelief that this little blonde hussy would try to steal her Baba!

 

Perhaps she won't be quite as jealous of a little lump of a newborn baby...

Eva Maya Onur!!

Now, I'll share a couple of cute soccer videos, but only if you won't blame me too much for Sophia's hideous outfit... which consists of red Christmas pajamas with snowmen and hot pink crocs.  It isn't pretty.  We needed to do laundry and had to dig down into the cotton pajama pile for something that still fit!

 

The first video shows Sophia scoring her first backyard goal (permanent link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5173326726705524849&hl=en):

 

So we've all gotten sick now.  Fortunately the illness didn't last long for Esen or I, so we're not feeling too badly at this point.  Sophia also seems to be responding to the antibiotics, so I'm hopeful the worst is behind her as well.  I was actually starting to feel optimistic about the weekend.  That's when the notice went up at daycare... an outbreak of hand-foot-and-mouth disease.  Sounds like something that cows get, right?  Nope... it's a nasty little virus that spreads like wildfire between kids and causes open blisters on... you guessed it: the hands, the feet, and the MOUTH!  Sounds wonderful, no?  Antibiotics are of no use since it's a virus, so she's not protected even though she's currently on antibiotics.  She's already been exposed, so there's no use keeping her home.  We're just waiting... waiting to learn our fate.  It's ironic that it spreads like wildfire because it's all the wildfires here in California that are likely to blame.  Because the air quality in Sacramento is so poor, we're being told to stay indoors (especially kids).  Thus, the daycare is keeping the kids inside all day, every day... where the germs spread like WILDFIRE! 

 

It's not easy to keep Sophia inside.  When she sees us letting Suzy out into the backyard and sees the kitties running around back there, she just hangs on the back door and cries.  This evening it became really clear that we were going to need a plan to entertain her.  We wound up going to the dollar store and walking through every aisle for about an hour.  It's really the perfect location... plenty of stuff (much of it toys) and only a $1 if she breaks something!  We've started to brainstorm about where we can go next.  We've already been to Home Depot with her (too many sharp and heavy objects and big carts with boards sticking out), so we're thinking a bookstore might work (she loves the kid section) and perhaps we can do Ikea over the weekend since it's farther away.  The malls are really crowded these days... not just because of the air quality, but because of the crazy heat.  Which brings me to my next complaint... THE HEAT!  It hit 107 degrees today.  Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 111.  Thursday?  108.  Let me tell you a little secret.  It's not much fun to be pregnant in that kind of heat.  I'd love to escape to the mall every evening, but I'm pretty sure that's what most of Sacramento is doing and a crowded mall is no place for a toddler who doesn't really look where she's walking.  Suggestions?  I'd love some more ideas for indoor, air conditioned, toddler-friendly options.

 

Sophia has a different strategy for beating the heat.  I think it's probably pretty effective, but I'm not sure it would work well for me.  See for yourselves... (permanent link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2179469426751822252&hl=en):

   

 

Total nudity!  Why didn't I think of that!?  You'll notice that Sophia clearly understands what I'm saying to her (this is also true when Esen talks to her in Turkish).  She still doesn't say all that much.  Favorite words are still baba, mama, and baby.  We also know when she's saying Suzy, kitties, cheese, mine (learned at daycare), and karga (which is Turkish for crow, but Sophia uses to refer to all birds).  She also signs "more" and "all done" effectively for almost any activity, which is helpful, and is getting very adept at shaking her head yes and no.  It really does feel like you're having a conversation with her at times because she can at least answer a series of yes and no questions pretty clearly.  Again, I keep waiting for her to bust out with a complete sentence or something and just shock the hell out of us.

 

OK, two other random stories from Hawaii that I don't want to forget to share.  It took us a few days of recovery at home to remember these.

 

1.  We're walking through the San Francisco airport on our way to Hawaii.  After sleeping the whole way there in the car and then waiting in long lines at both the check-in counter and security, Sophia was thrilled to walk around a little.  For a while she was pushing her stroller and Esen and I were standing on either side of it, each with a hand on the stroller to steer it.  She was walking nicely between us while we were debating something or other.  At some point, we both looked down and Sophia was no longer between us.  We stopped and looked back... she had just stopped walking about 10-15 feet back and had this amused look on her face that we were oblivious.  We both felt like bad parents and several onlookers appeared to agree.

 

2.  As you saw in the video above, Sophia has developed an aversion to putting on clothes after her bath.  Since she's had some pretty bad diaper rash in the past month, we're pretty happy to let her air dry for a while anyway.  We were in the hotel room in Hawaii (surprise) and she was naked after her bath.  Despite the small space and the fact that Esen and I were located in two different parts of the room, Sophia managed to get out of our line of vision for a minute without us getting suspicious.  By the time we realized that she was sort of hiding, she had already pooped on the floor and managed to step in it.  Nice.  Note to self: don't sit on hotel room floors in the future.  I cleaned it as best as I could, but still...

Looks beautiful in that picture, doesn't it?  Yeah, well, I suppose it was... but Esen and I both thought hard about our previous vacations in an attempt to come up with one that sucked more than Hawaii did for us and Hawaii is the definite winner.  Little Sophia Lale came down with a fever the night before we left and was really sick the entire time we were away.  We didn't even really leave the hotel room for the first two days because she was so bad.  We had hopes of rebounding on day three when an afternoon trip to the zoo went well, but after a few hours of smiling and actually not having to carry a crying toddler around the vacation slipped back into suckiness and we decided to adopt a "let's just survive this" strategy for the rest of the trip.  There *were* some brief moments that weren't horrible (and we took lots of pictures of those to make it look like we actually spent some time outside of the hotel room), but they were short-lived... and, truthfully, hard to enjoy because we knew that the fever and crying would start back up before long.  Yes, we gave her plenty of Motrin (alternating with Tylenol, which has worked fairly well in the past)... yes, she got plenty of sleep (well, as much as can be expected when you're coughing your brains out)... she was (*IS*) just really sick.  It's probably just a bad cold... a cold that Esen also came down with about half-way through the trip (more fun!).  And we know it started in daycare because several of my colleagues' kids who are in the same class are also sick.  Still, we're going to rule out ear infections by taking her into the doctor today.  The fun continues.  The only thing that kept me from going totally insane is that I'm still feeling relatively healthy.  Given my luck this past week, I'm pretty much just waiting to start feeling like crap.  :)

 

I sound pretty whiney, I know.  Believe me... if I had posted to the blog while we were actually living our Hawaiian nightmare, I would have sounded a lot worse.  It's exhausting to be stuck in a 200-square-foot hotel room with a crying, sick kid for 5 nights and 6 days (but, we discovered, worse to be out in public with her... we only ate one meal in a restaurant... the rest was take-out because she was either crying or clingy or crying AND clingy).  I put our small collection of good pictures into an album at the right, so look at those and imagine that our time in Hawaii was alright if you must.  We already have plans to make Sophia feel guilty for ruining the trip when she gets a little older... perhaps the guilt will encourage her to send us to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary.  All we know is that we're definitely NOT going back with kids.  Hell, I'm not sure that I'm going on any vacations with kids until they're old enough to (1) be fully medicated when sick, (2) be bribed into good behavior even if they feel crappy, (3) be left with a hotel babysitter.

 

In the airport on the way home, Esen asked me if there was anything that I would miss about Hawaii.  I replied that perhaps the sound of the ocean would be missed because our hotel was right on the water.  You want to know what his response to the same question was?  "Hot chicks in bikinis."  Yeah, that's something you say to a woman who was on the beach in a maternity bathing suit. 

 

Stay tuned for more Hawaii-related posts (because I had a LOT of downtime in the room to think about things that annoyed me)... primary on my list is the airlines' new policy of NOT letting people with small children board early, but I might also rant on family bathroom etiquette, the lack of air conditioning in a $300/night hotel, and the "Hawaii" Brady Bunch episodes (and how eerily similar they were to our own experience!).

 

POST-DOCTOR UPDATE:  Great!  Sophia has double ear infections!  And, if her cough doesn't clear in a day or so, she'll have to take some medicine via nebulizer to help clear her lungs.  No wonder the poor kid was such a bear all week, huh?