so we have finally booked our tickets for the us - and we've been busy making plans for our vacation ever since! ben and i realized this is probably the longest stretch i've had between visits (for good reason, of course), as it will have been almost 9 months since my last visit when i arrive in august.
standing - on his own!
i'm working on a 'bucket list' for our visit which i'll post here when i'm ready - stuff we want to make sure we do while we are 'home' (and introduce our little man to). cheesy, i know, but when you've only got 3 weeks to squeeze an entire summer in it's important to plan! emre's totally on board with this.
stylin' - and wearing shoes (vans!) for the first time.
this morning as i was driving to work i decided to listen to my 'pool party' mix. this mix is a work in progress (don't ask me why but ben doesn't feel the lyrics of big pun will be appropriate for the kids). it's basically any song i come across that i think would be good to listen to one day when we have a backyard and we're chillin' by the pool. in turkey, these things are rare and hard to come by (read: EXPENSIVE). so, i sometimes get jealous of my friends & family back home who take their backyards for granted.
hangin' with aunt özge
i will never take a back yard for granted again. or an american grocery store, for that matter. ben knows this (and he's sick of hearing about it): when we have a backyard? there will be parties. dinner parties, and themed-parties, and just-because parties. and in the summer there will be a designated hour for a conga line, every day. our kids will be embarrassed and our neighbors might wonder, but you just have to.
after much effort: finally figured out how to stick those toes in his mouth
and a pool, of course. i guess i can see now why my mother insisted on having a pool at every house we lived in growing up. she found deals on used above-ground pools and made my dad buy them & take care of them, much to his chagrin. she wanted her girls to grow up swimming in the backyard, and boy did we (and putting on countless synchronized swimming shows, and having underwater tea parties, and skinny dipping with our girlfriends during sleepovers). thanks, mom!
rollin' around
last night i had a dream we were looking at a house that we had decided to buy. it wasn't fancy, in fact in my waking state i realized it needed a lot of work. but it did have a huge screened-in porch running down the side, and a big old back yard. we were in LOVE with this house, and agreed immediately on where to place a picnic table on the porch (picnic table? hey, i can't be held accountable for decorating decisions made in dreamland). side note: the other dream i had last night involved sitting next to steve martin at a diner, and me leaning over into his booth to tell him he's wonderful. he seemed genuinely appreciative of the compliment.
loving his baby einstein quilt - thank you, joanna duncan!
then, this morning on my way to work (while listening to the 'pool party' mix), '
sweet home alabama' came on. i was thrilled, of course, because i'd just listened to '
hot fun in the summertime' (obviously, one of many s&tfs songs on the mix) which had put me in exactly the right mood to hear that very song at that very moment. i was dancing in my seat and singing along, not a care in the world. pretty entertaining stuff for the turkish dude who was stuck next to me at the light. and then, i started crying - like,
really crying. the turkish dude was, no doubt, completely freaked out by the time the light turned green.
my baybee is sooo beautiful!
why tears for 'sweet home alabama' you (rightfully) ask? i think it's because i'm homesick. and no, not for alabama. the only time i've even been there was driving through on a bus, enroute to my senior trip destination of disney world (what the hell were we thinking, cramming 90 kids onto a bus to drive all the way from
canton, ny to orlando, fl?)... actually, now that i look at that map i realize we didn't even go near alabama on that trip. so, i guess i've never been. but i digress!
ok mom, enough with the photo shoot
i think what i'm homesick for is america. america-ness. 'merica. i pictured us driving on our road trips this august and listening to that song. playing in mom & dad's backyard by the pool. grilling up burgers & dogs on the bbq. eating pork - and sooo much ice cream.
stray pup - adopted this week by our building community
i'm excited, and so, so anxious, to introduce emre to this, his other half, his american roots. in this heat? with ramadan right around the corner? it can't come fast enough.
