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.

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!

Five Finger Vibrams

"The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering" - Leonardo da Vinci

For my husband's birthday last month, I ordered each of us a pair of Five Finger Vibrams.  Ha!  I can only wonder what kind of images are flowing through your mind after hearing of a product with a name like that!  They're becoming more and more popular these days and were even featured in a recent Sunday newspaper here in Turkey with a story about an American actor photographed wearing them.  But for those of you who haven't heard of them yet, they can most basically be described as gloves for your feet.

Wearing them is almost like wearing no shoes at all.  They fit so snuggly and have no padding.  The bottom of the shoes are tough enough to prevent cuts and scrapes from sharp stones but thin and pliable enough to allow you to really feel the earth beneath your feet.  This connection with the earth is very important to me.  Oh and they are so very comfortable!  Because they individually house each of my toes, my feet can work as they're meant to and playing outside becomes much easier.  I can walk, run, jump, climb and play without really feeling like I'm wearing shoes.  I can also wear them in the water.  I have a bit of a phobia about walking in water when I can't see the bottom.  Now I have my Vibrams I don't need to feel scared of standing on something yucky or bitey or ouchie.  They're fantastic.  Can you tell how excited I am?

I virtually grew up without shoes.  All five of my brothers and sisters and I spent our weekends and afternoons roaming around our farm and exploring the bush behind or property, barefoot.  We loved the liberating sensation of having naked feet.  I remember how lovely it felt to squelch in mud puddles and how agile we were climbing trees.  We were born without shoes and it felt more natural going barefoot than squeezing our wriggly toes into rigid and confining shoes.

Even now the first thing I do when I come home is to kick off my shoes.

Unfortunately it's not socially acceptable to go around barefoot.  If I walked into my local grocery store or restaurant without shoes I'd most likely be asked to leave.  As a foreigner living in a very foreign country, I have to be careful about what I wear to avoid being stared at or verbally abused.  So going without shoes in public (in fact, even in my own home I'm frowned upon for not wearing slippers) would ostracize me even moreso.  Now I can wear my Vibrams (and still get stared at), conform to the custom of wearing shoes, and still feel as though I'm barefoot.

What do you think of them?  Kinda funny looking, hey?  But man oh man, they're good fun!  I just love 'em!

Easter Fun

As someone who believes in God without religion, Easter has never been a spiritually important time for me. Instead, I prefer the pagan ritual of celebrating the Spring Equinox. Did you know, the word Easter is actually derived from the name of the Goddess Eostre who represented the renewal of life - sunrise, spring-time and fertility?

Spring has always been my favourite time of the year. To me Spring is happiness and new life, flowers and butterflies, warm weather and cool breezes, colour, fun, sunshine, dandelions, fluffy clouds, trickling streams, green grass and baby birds.

With a constant state of little boy wonderment toddling along by my side I felt inspired this year more than any other time to put a bit of effort into celebrating Easter.

First, a rabbit ... I saw a cute little sock rabbit on Elsie Marley's blog and thought it looked simple enough to make even with Kaya "helping" me. All I needed was one of Kaya's mismatched socks, some matching thread and some cotton (picked from the cotton field next door):

The cute bunny tail was the first step:

Next, I shaped the body and tied it off at the neck:

Stuffing the head was next:

Although the next step was just as easy as all the previous steps, it did take a bit of time.  First I cut the top of the sock right down the middle to the top of the bunny's head to make the two ears and then closed each ear with a some simple stitching:

And here's the completed bunny with another bunny friend:

How's that for a simple and very cute little Easter decoration?  Even better, each bunny meant one less mismatched sock lying around!

Since this craft was so easy and so much fun to do, I got into Martha Stewart mode and started searching the internet for something else to make. Eventually I decided to make some easter bread to take to Easter supper at Angeline and Wolf's place. The recipe from Simple Bites looked simple enough (for me, "simple" is a prerequisite for making every cooking decision) even though it was still bread.

My bread-making record is pretty dismal. My 1/2 dozen attempts over the past couple of months have all been less than .... bread-like .... and I'd told Murat a couple of days before I tried this recipe that if I wasn't able to deliver the goods on my seventh try then I'd buy a bread maker. I don't know what I do wrong. But the bread always ends up wet and doughy in the middle or it doesn't rise or it just tastes really bad! I've tried everything like pre-testing the yeast, kneading the dough for hours (not really that long), using different flours, trying different temperatures of water or milk and even meditating beforehand. Nothing has worked. Until now that is!

I followed this recipe almost exactly but ended up having to keep it in the oven MUCH longer than specified. Did I mention that my oven is a piece of crap? Oh and I did modify the ingredients very slightly. Instead of all-purpose white flour I used wholewheat flour. I also used raw goat milk from our local village pasture fed goats, fresh eggs from the free range chooks in the village, fresh yellow butter, and olive oil instead of vegetable oil for shining up the eggs. And if I'd had more time I would have made natural dyes for the eggs instead of the not-so-good-for-eating artificial food colouring that I did use (I just made sure no one ate the pieces of bread stained by the dye).

This is what the dough looked like after I'd kneaded it for ages:

And this is what it looked like after I'd lovingly plated it and gently placed it in the baking tin:

And this is what it looked like right before it was eaten - a little more black than golden but no one complained.

Although not exactly breakfast bread, it's bread none-the-less. And it rose perfectly! And it wasn't wet and doughy in the middle! And it tasted lovely! Perhaps the secret is in the added sugar. Or the eggs. Or maybe it's the plating of the dough. Who knows? But this recipe is definitely a keeper. I made it again last night with some mashed banana thrown in and half the giant loaf has been gobbled up already! Next time I'm going to try it without the sugar since sugar's not a favourite ingredient in this household. Wish me luck!

Beauty, Laughter, Love

My little angel makes my life so rich.  I can spend an entire day doing nothing but watching him.  I marvel as he uses his every sense to satisfy his intense curiosity in every single ingredient that makes up his world.  By looking at the world through the eyes of a 14 month old toddler, I'm reminded of how beautiful even the simplest things can be.  I love watching his facial expressions as he tastes different foods and experiments with the different textures in his mouth, in his hands, spread all over the table or rubbed through his hair.  I love watching his little nose wrinkle and his lips purse as he sniffs loudly at a flower he's buried his little face into.  I love watching his deep concentration as he manipulates and tests the relationship between household objects.  Does the telephone charger plug into the electrical socket?  How does this rock need to be positioned to fit into this bottle?  If my wooden xylophone is put on its side and I stand on it, can I reach the apple on the kitchen counter?   Where is the button that opens Baba's shaver to reveal the batteries?

If it wasn't for Kaya, during this past week, I wouldn't have noticed a train of hairy caterpillars emerging from under a bush.  I wouldn't have felt that wonderful warm spring breeze caress my face as I watched Kaya collect rocks to throw into a hole he found in the garden.  I wouldn't have found that giant ball of fluff hidden under the lounge chair.  I wouldn't have noticed the little bird pecking for worms under the park bench.  I wouldn't have paid attention to the dust fairies dancing in the sunlight streaming through the bedroom window.  And I wouldn't have discovered that after offering him just a couple of cloves of roasted garlic, the smell of Kaya's 'garlicy' pee would permeate our whole house for several hours the next morning.

And I'm sure if Kaya wasn't in my life I wouldn't laugh anywhere near as often as I laugh these days.  Kaya loves to dance.  He's not fussy about the kind of music playing.  If it has a beat, for him, it's dance music!  He's so funny and so adorable to watch.  I don't know where he learns his dance moves.  Neither his father nor I dance the way he does and he doesn't watch TV.  I guess he just feels the music and his body does the rest.  He generally starts with a little bit of a bounce and then he raises one hand up in the air in front of him while he bobs up and down.  He'll often incorporate a little twist where he simultaneously bounces up and down, twists his torso and rolls his hips.  Sometimes he'll crouch down low and bounce with his little bottom sticking out behind him.  And lately he'll throw in a few spins.  Even though he'll put on a dance show several times a day, his moves never fail to make my whole body smile!

So many other things he does make me laugh too.  For instance, some of the sounds he makes are so funny.  His favourite word lately sounds like "Abu Dhabi"..  He says it so often we're convinced that perhaps this should be our next holiday destination.  He also likes to hum tunes that combine a very low pitch with a very high pitch.  When he hums the highest pitch, he raises his little eyebrows and opens his eyes wide.  It always makes me laugh.  He loves playing chasey and laughs hysterically when I come after him.  That of course makes me laugh too.  Oh and his fascination with toes!  Wiggling my toes makes him giggle uncontrollably and then for some reason he's drawn to bite them.  Since my feet are so ticklish, feeling his little hands grab my toes as he tries to get them into my mouth, gets me giggling uncontrollably too!

How I love my little boy.   While giving birth to Kaya I gave birth to my own heart.  My heart no longer resides in my chest, my heart was reborn in Kaya.  I feel this to be true especially when I hold him to my breast and watch his beautiful eyes flutter closed in absolute contentment in his 'milk time'.  I feel butterflies in my tummy every single time I nurse him.  I feel my heart beating in his little body.  I feel a love so overwhelming I can't feel anything else.  This little gift of heaven, my little angel, is my heart, my love, my everything.  I am so blessed.