Part 2 of the toilet training adventure

Warning: This post is about poo!  Please don't bother reading unless you're truly interested in learning about our progress, or if you have a weird fascination with poo, or if you're truly bored and have nothing better to do.

Almost immediately after my first post about Ky's introduction to toilet training we virtually gave up trying because he only ever seemed to want to go to the toilet when we were outside or not within potty-running-to distance.  And while, not before, but while he was filling his nappy he'd happily tell me what he was doing.  Then suddenly, about 2 weeks ago he sat down on his little potty did a poo and excitedly pulled on my hand to help him empty it into the toilet.  After cleaning the bowl and his bottom, he promptly did another poo in the toilet and again excitedly jumped up, grabbed my hand and had me help him empty it into the toilet a second time.  This little performance happened a total of 6 times!!!  (I have no idea where all that poo was coming from .. he only has a little tummy).  Since coming to realise how he can, all by himself, create something seemingly out of nothing just by sitting on his toilet and grunting a little bit, he's happily made this pooing and weeing in his potty business a regular pastime.  He doesn't even make a big deal about it anymore.  Like everything else he's learned, he's quickly undertaken this latest skill with modesty.  He doesn't need all the fanfare and congratulations, he's taken it in his stride as if it's just another notch in his belt of milestones he's accomplished.

So for the past 6 days we haven't needed to use even a single nappy during the day!  It's been lovely not having to wash bucketloads of stinky nappies every couple of days.  It's also been nice to dress Kaya in clothes without a bulky nappy underneath.  He looks so tall and lean without all that extra padding on his bum.  The only problem is keeping his pants from falling down...

A better frame of mind

It's been too long since I've blogged about anything, I know.  But to be honest I just haven't been in the right frame of mind to share my thoughts with the rest of the world.  I've been feeling depressed because I've been feeling imprisoned.  Physically imprisoned.  Our home is really like a prison in many ways with the high fence completely circling the complex and security guards patrolling the gates and the grounds.  I don't notice these things if I get out of the place every now and then but you see, for more than a month we've been without a car which has meant we've been stranded out here in "the compound" amongst the cotton fields with no logical means of escape.  It's a 7km trip to the nearest village.  About 15km to the nearest shopping centre.  And about 20km to the nearest beach.  With temperatures as hot as they've been, this is just too far to walk with a toddler.  Our other option is taking the shuttle bus that runs several times a day and connects to a the regular bus service in the village.  But because the poorly paved road is so narrow with too many blind corners and Turkish drivers tend to believe they're driving formula one race cars at all times, taking Kaya on a bus was not an option for us.  So the only times we were able to leave the complex were when we hired a car on hubby's one day off each week.  For me, Miss Peter Pan, a one week leave pass is just not often enough to maintain any degree of sanity.  So for the past 5 or 6 weeks I've been fighting waves of insanity and wallowing in a puddle of feeling-sorry-for-myselfness...

But not anymore!!  We have our car back = our parole hearing was successful = FREEDOM.

Hot as Hell

Remember when I recently described how idyllic it was living the village life here at the "lojman" ... well life is not so idyllic lately with the mercury sitting above 40 degrees (celcius, that is)!  Antalya is always hot this time of year but right now we're experiencing record temperature highs.  And it's a sweaty, dripping, suffocating kind of heat.  A wet-towel-over-your-head-in-the-sauna kind of heat.   A make-you-crazy, claw-at-your-skin, pull-your-hair-out kind of heat.  And unfortunately for us poor souls living in the lojman, this heat is inescapable because we're being deprived of air-conditioning.  I don't know what I did in a previous life to deserve this punishment, but truly I feel like I'm dying a slow death.  As I write this I'm watching parts of my body melt into a puddle under the computer.  And I feel like my brain has shrivelled into the likeness of a walnut.  In fact, if I shake my head, I'm sure I can hear it clack around inside my skull...  To make matters worse, we were even without electricity for much of yesterday, which meant not even a fan to ease the suffering.  Of course, poor little Kaya is feeling it too.  He has an angry looking heat rash covering most of his torso with spots on his face and head as well.  He can't sleep.  He doesn't want to eat.  He's cranky.  How much more of this I can endure, I have no idea, but for sure if I had some kind of transportation to get us out of here we'd be camping out in the closest shopping mall.