Movin' on Up

So, we made it. Pneumonia is out and ginormous apartment is IN! Very wild couple of weeks there.
We're in our new home (for the next two years) and it's really grand. We are starting to meet people; there's been less walking around outside and more jumping on the beds to Rocknoceros music. It's not city block downtown out here in the burbs but there's a lot of lame (cool if you're 18 months) playgrounds all around the building. I am pretending the second level of our apartment doesn't exist and we're all occupied trying to keep track of eachother in the five bedrooms and rest of the house down here.
I don't have anything against big houses- I know lots of people love them...I just love cozy little places where I can keep an ear on my kids at all times.
There were 3 blogs worth of interesting details all in one night of our first Brownie event. As we arrived at the traditional Turkish rug shop- with GOR-ge-OUS rugs hanging all over the place (i mean, really....jaw dropping....drooling fantastic, musty, hand-woven by hill people rugs) girls started in on the squealing and smiling greetings of friends and Billie (who had been bursting with joy 3 minutes before we arrived) started to cry just a little. You could just feel her crumble at the memory of her old girl scout troop- all the friends, the comfort of the places she knew, being the star of the show, super fun troop leader moms....they were all left behind somewhere far away and this was NOT going to be the meeting she was picturing it to be. We hugged for a bit and then sat down to be served apple tea and turkish cakes (i too, find it hard to cry when there's cake to be had). She took a seat at one of the tables, another girl happened to sit next to her. I sat apart to give her some space and see what would happen (most of the girls flocked to Cort and his six month old in a sling cuteness) so I thought that might give her a chance to talk to someone on her own. I heard her strike up a conversation and soon the girls were whispering all sorts of things and giggling like the apple tea had been spiked.
It turned out there was no alcohol but there WERE hookers at the party. After an art contest in which each girl submits her work of art, with carefully messy lettering and suns with smiley faces; pictures the girls have clearly poured themselves into, lined up in a row so that each girl can place a ticket on the picture she votes best to determine a winner (YIKES!!!!! I'm still cringing at the horror of it!!- There were awards even!!! For first, second and third place!!! Can you imagine?! Being LESS than third place...change subjects before crying...). Then learning about Turkish wedding traditions from the shop owner and staff. We were all lead in a dance! We're tapping our feet and clicking wooden finger spoons and everyone pales in comparison to this tall, hair past her bottom, hourglass woman in high heels. She can shake it. She's a belly dancer- I'm not just saying that she really IS a belly dancer. And from the topless photo on her business card I think she may provide some extra services...but i really have no reason to say that. She was super nice and I would totally hire her for the next baby shower i have to plan.
Billie was in a circle ring with several other girls- all bouncing in glee and having the best night ever.
So far we love Turkey and it is really more interesting than anywhere- I mean how often are there women of the night at girl scout events?!!
The equivalent of this joyful night for myself was a morning at the local farmers market. Talk about beautiful produce. Whooo boy! We didn't even have a meat with dinner last night (and for those of you who know Bill- you know that's saying A LOT about the veggies here!)
Come visit. For real!
pictures- i'll post them one day when we can get them to the computer. our shipment is stuck in america so we'll have no sign of our things for another month...maybe then you can see what i'm talking about.

How the brioche stitch saved my life

Sometimes things are just so awful that all you can do is laugh...or crumble to the floor and break down in tears. Good news: not asthma...Billie was just regular old sick, then Bill got it....then Jackson...yesterday Sloane was feverish and ill all day...now it's my turn. Cort is well but as often as he's sucking on all of our fingers, I'm not sure how long that will last. Billie has recovered. Jackson only hurled once today. Sloane is still pretty sick and I am writing this with no make-up, un showered with a towel wrapped around my throat neckbrace style to keep the warm and cool sensations from my Vicks Vapor rub going just a little longer. Bill is the sickest I've ever seen him and he's been to work long hours every day- learning the ropes with pale blue skin and sweaty chills. I think I'm over jet lag and I'm only sleeping in because of the hours I spend awake in the middle of the night holding cool washclothes on various foreheads, re-filling the humidifiers and administering tylenol. So, what can one do when you can't sleep because you want to stay awake and make sure everyone is breathing? The Brioche Stitch! I had no idea what this was...but the good 'ol internet brought me to it and I've spent 48 hours trying to figure it out and finally just gotten the correct equation for a pattern to make a scarf I saw that looks squishy and cute.
As for Turkey- it's wonderful whenever we leave the house. We've found playgrounds and markets and we run outside everytime we hear the bread man calling. He walks around with fresh bread balanced on a board on his head - bread rings like pretzels kind of with sesame seeds toasted on it.
And we saw our apartment...did I say it was 6 bedrooms? My mistake. It's actually not six....there are seven bedrooms. It's still not been painted and cleaned so we're not moving in this week but we saw the layout and if I was freaked out before...now I'm just paralyzed with fear. Hide and seek takes on a whole new dimension in our two story penthouse apartment.
Other good things about Turkey are the women are so fashionable and stylish- it's fun to people watch. All the men melt and gush over the cuteness of the kids and we get lots of approving looks as opposed to the fear and shock on peoples faces when we walk into an American restaurant. It's a very warm place. When we drove to our apartment we got a little glimpse of the suburbs beyond the city. We can't see much from here because it's smog all around. The view from our apartment is of snow covered barren hills. Like where the sidewalk ends or something...our street just dead ends and the only thing beyond it is the empty hills. Bustling city on one side...uncharted land on the other. Time for bedtime stories so I'll sign off.

Merhaba

So, the thing with jet lag is like, if you're one person maybe you can just walk around to stay awake. But if you're six people...well, you might have to sit down to read a story and then once you're on the couch..well, it's all over. And if you actually do fall asleep at some point during the night when you should be sleeping it is almost certain that then will be the moment that someone comes into your room to gently ask "Mom, can I have some pasta?" or..."Why was that night so short?" or...your two year old will have to use the bathroom. (Ahhh...zippered jammies and tall toilets...why do you make life so hard on me?!!!! (Yes, I am still mourning the graduation from diapers)).
Anyhow we're here and we love it!
We flew first class which was fun. I'm not cool enough to pretend I'm not impressed by luxury. Especially because of the looks on everyone else's faces. When you're in the waiting area...and everyone is having a starbucks three pages into their bestseller with their boarding passes and sitting quietly. Then there's this family with kids. Four of them! And they have noisy toys and they're blowing bubbles and Oh-my-lord is that woman breastfeeding an infant while blowing bubbles and balancing a granola bar on her knee? yeah. That's us. And you can see what everyone is thinking. I really hope I'm not sitting next to them. And I'm sure there are those amoung them thinking "That's why I sit in first class". But guess what. That's right. Six seats in first class- baby!
Not likely to be hearing much from me about Turkey (or any other subject of interest) for a while because first class ROCKS MY WORLD. There's even leg room! I slept!! We ALL slept! The food was good! It's another world!
In other news, Turkey is fun, we are happy, people here are very nice, Bill likes his job, we should move into our new house in a few weeks, they have coke and nutella and everything here so we should be fine for the next two years.
And we have internet now so I might write about something else after I blog about first class 3 more times. Must go study my Turkish now; no one speaks English and I need to figure out how to tell people about our flight...in first class!
Start making plans to come visit us now. We have six bedrooms, which is frightening to me- but i'll save that for another blog.