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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

One Year Up!



This morning when I looked out the living room window of our fourth floor apartment, I felt so blessed to be living in this little village on the outskirts of Antalya - the most popular touristy city of the Turkish Mediterranean coast. The view is so lovely. Our complex is surrounded on all sides by fields of newly planted wheat and corn, young pomegranate trees, glasshouses overfilled with tomatoes and fragrant orange orchards. There are no other buildings within miles, there are no highways to be seen.  Magnificent snow-capped mountains provide the backdrop below a sky of bluest blue.  The only sounds are of birds singing, children playing, tractors plowing and the occasional farm dog barking.  It's very peaceful here. And we're so fortunate to be able to call this place home.

We've been living here for just over a year now and I can hardly believe how quickly the time has flown.  When we first arrived, Kaya was just a smiling little bundle entwined within his baby sling.  Every day I carried him for long walks along the winding tracks separating the farms. I would point out the wild mulberries, stop to show him turtles swimming in a waterhole, mimic the whistles of birds, and hold flowers close to his face so he could learn the lovely smells.

Now, one year later, Ky, now 15 months old, is taking me for walks around the place.  He's the one pointing to birds in the sky, showing me trails of caterpillars, bringing me handfuls of bright flowers, copying the sounds of barking dogs and tasting everything within reach. When did this switch in roles happen? I must have been looking the other way because I completely missed it!

The past year has been oh so busy with Ky's business of growing from a bubbly baby to a tenacious toddler. There hasn't been a dull moment and we only expect things to get more interesting, more exciting, and more  as Ky approaches his second birthday.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

A blog about poo

Two days ago I was rinsing a smelly nappy and fantasizing about the day when Kaya would take himself to the toilet and I wouldn't have to deal with another nappy (until the next baby came along). I started wondering when the best time would be to start his toilet training. I'd already read a little bit about the "how to" but I wasn't so sure about the "when to". At 15 months of age, is now a good time to start? He's walking and very able to do a lot of things by himself. And the weather is warm enough now for him to be able to run around the place naked and not get a chilly bottom. I consulted some of my baby books and had a bit of a browse online. All sources agreed that it was important to wait until the child was "ready" before even thinking about starting training. What did "ready" mean? Well, it seems that the little one should be able to recognize the sensation of needing to go and be able to associate this sensation with the end-product left in his nappy. He should also feel some discomfort in being wet or "pooey" (we're not allowed to use words like dirty or smelly because apparently using words or expressions with negative connotations can cause your kid to not respond well to toilet training) and either try to remove the nappy himself, or communicate to his mummy that he's created another "masterpiece" so she'll remove his nappy for him.

"Bugger," I thought, Kaya either doesn't seem to realise or doesn't care when he's poo'ed or wee'ed in his nappy.  And I resigned myself to a few more months of hosing poo out of nappies....

But then yesterday, I noticed Kaya standing quietly in a corner and was just about to ask him if he'd done a poo, when he started pulling at his pants leg and saying over and over "ba-ba, ba-ba" (unfortunately ba-ba is Kaya's word for poo-poo.  Needless to say, Murat's not very impressed that Kaya chooses to use the same word for acknowledging both his poo and his father).

Yeah! So it seems Kaya's met all the criteria for being "ready" for toilet training. I just have to get my plan of action figured out and hopefully we'll have a toilet trained little man very soon. Wish me luck!