Alia is 23 Months old!

We celebrated Alia's 23rd month birthday (okay, actually it went unacknowledged in favor of a pre-2-year-old birthday celebration) here in Turkey. As I sit here in the living room looking at the royal blue Agean listening to music pumping, I reflect on the last three weeks we've spent here and how Alia has blossomed.

During our stay here in Turkey, I've watched Alia grow beyond belief. Physically speaking, Alia has actually put on a little bit of weight. She has come out of her shell and has been eating very well. She loves the fruit here fresh from the neighborhood fruit stand. She's eaten unfamiliar things, different cheeses, and even branched out into mint ice cream. She is brown, thanks to her dad's genes. She also seems taller. All in all, the time away from home with non-stop Daddy time and non-stop Grandma time has done amazing things for her.

Socially, Turkish people have really helped her to come out of her shell. Before the trip, Alia was very shy. Although she did begin to show signs of improvement before our arrival, the Turks are lovers of babies and kids, and every evening when we strolled through the village, men and women alike would approach to admire her, offer her flowers, kiss her feet, pinch her cheeks. I'm not kidding...the Turks love children, and not in the "if I were in the U.S., I'd feel creeped out" way. The affection is genuine, and as a result, Alia now greets people with "Hi" and her version of "Marhaba"(hello in Turkish) which sound  little like "AAbba".

Alia's verbal skills have also made tremendous strides this month. She counts. She strings two and three words together. Her first string of words was "Ice, Ice, baby!"...which may make us bad parents, but we really enjoy our little trained monkey! She also free-styles nursery rhymes....one, two, buckly my Froggy! three, four, shut the Goka! (Alia speak for yogurt), etc.

Alia went swimming nearly every day we were here with her new water wings. In the beginning she was a little concerned about them, but once she realized their value, she happily complied.

It has been a wonderful month for me as well. I feel that this holiday has done both of us good. Our relationship is no longer one filled with daily battles. I have been able to let go of the every-day stress and really enjoy Alia again. She is a bright, funny little girl, and no longer a baby.

Amelie is 7 Months Old

Well. I have to say. Amelie is coming into her own. This past month has been an amazing month of progress. Amelie is happy. She is healthy. She has taken to eating solids. She has consolidated to two solid naps per day and sleeps through the night roughly all the time now. Exhaaaaale. Amelie now sits proudly in a highchair. She models designer scarves...there's nothing she can't do....well, except sitting up unassisted, which we work on daily!

Amelie rolls back and forth, and has become a tummy sleeper. She loves watching her sister above all else. Amelie is nuzzling her way right in to the center of things in our family.

Amelie typically goes to bed at 7 and wakes up anywhere from 5am to 7AM. If she wakes early, I feed her and put her back down. Sometimes she'll go back to bed, sometimes not. She is typically up before Alia, so every morning when Alia awakes, Amelie and I go to greet her. I put her in her crib, and she enjoys playing with toys there. She still does not sleep in their bedroom as we just have too many wake ups between the girls and don't want to risk the girls waking each other up. As it is now, we don't go to either girls in the night unless they don't settle themselves within 10 or 15 minutes.

So there we are...another month has come and gone and Amelie just keeps becoming more of herself. She is happy, sweet, and loves to be apart of things.

thoughts on international travel with baby and toddler

Okay, here I sit in Turkbuku, Turkey. That's an hour flight from Istanbul if you're one of my non-family readers. We made the journey last Friday with Alia and Amelie. This is the second international trip I've taken with baby, and as a relatively seasoned traveler pre-baby, let me just say that it's a different world once your mini-me is along for the ride.

So what have I learned? It's probably not a good idea to try out new hip boutique hotels in the center of the hip up and coming area of a given city. Although that would have been right up our alley 2 years ago, this year, we arrived Istanbul at midnight on a Saturday night. After 20 hours of travel, we found that the 20 minute ride to the hotel took more like an hour due to pedestrian traffic in our little party zone. Now, I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture of two crying, exhausted babies stuffed in yet another mode of transportation and arriving at the hotel with boom boom boom music going full blast. Sure, it looked like fun for anyone who enjoys nightlife, enjoys catching the scenery, but that was not us at that moment. So what did I take away from this? Maybe next time we leave L.A. on Wednesday night rather than Friday night so that we arrive on Thursday night rather than Saturday night. And instead of trying to grab a new Istanbul experience where there really isn't time for one (we were just over-nighting for one night and heading to Turkbuku the following day), maybe our tried and true spot is a better bet...or perhaps even the airport hotel at Attaturk airport would be even better and more streamlined. Oh, and with two babies? Confirm and double confirm that they will in fact have two cribs waiting for you after your long journey. Trust me...you don't want to wait yet another hour for a single crib to be delivered and then learn that there isn't a second one. It's not a good time to begin your toddler sleeping on an impromptu floor pallet.

Staying at the airport hotel would alleviate any issues with Istanbul nightlife and traffic jams, but another thought on leaving mid-week (and thus returning mid-week from our typical 3 weeks away) is that it might be nice for Ajay to return to a two day work week rather than a five day work week. Just a thought.

What else....if you have a baby that is just learning to eat solids? Bring lots of bibs. No telling when you'll get to a laundry facility, and let's just say Amelie still has a way to go with dining and etiquette! Oh, and it is not a mistake to bring your video monitor if you're used to having one at home. This year I brought ours and am so glad I did. Yes, they do require plug converters, and make sure they are the ones that convert current as well as plugs), but it's really helped my piece of mind while they nap as well as the mid-night wake-ups from jet lag.

This time I really packed quite a lot of baby accouterments. I brought formula, bottles, baby food, baby spoons, sippy cups, toys, books, bibs, baby shampoo, baby sunscreen, baby sun hats, and even the spring-open tent that the girls play in at home. And while we have somewhat taken over the house with all of our baby paraphernalia, I am happy I though ahead enough to get all this stuff together. The girls are comforted and entertained by having their familiar things here, in addition to new toys that we packed for the journey. Oh, and I really thought I over-packed the girls clothes? But in fact, I really didn't. Considering Alia's level of activity and propensity for covering herself in water from the hose and dirt from baby-jesus-knows-where, as well as Amelie's general baby-messiness, and Europe/Asia's lack of electric dryers, laundry takes longer to get done. Everything dries in the sun. So I'm glad I packed so many pjs, onesies, outfits, socks, etc. for the girls. Otherwise they'd be wearing either damp or dirty clothes.

Now lets talk about the flight. Last year traveling, Amelie was still on the inside. We flew coach, and Alia had her own seat. She still just barely fit in her infant car seat so she flew in that, slept in that, and when she got antsy, we put it on the ground in front of her seat and let her stand and bounce on the airplane seat. That flight for me was pure hell. Six months pregnant, stuffed in a seat with no way to alleviate my swollen ankles, leg cramps, and general discomfort, I was pretty unhappy for the entire trip. This time we flew business class. We got 3 seats for the four of us and since Alia is still under two, we brought Amelie's car seat on board and gave her the third seat, and Alia was our lap child for take off and landing. Once we were in the air and Alia was ready for sleep, we made a pallet on the floor for Alia in front of Amelie's seat and she slept rather happily for 6 hours which is more than most of us slept. Amelie on the other hand had a hard time sleeping in her car seat and awoke from time to time trying to twist and turn onto her belly. All in all, the flight was a thousand million times better this year. Maybe it was me not being pregnant. Maybe it was that they treat you like a human being in business class rather than cattle in coach. But if you've got miles, I think using them up on business class tickets is miles well spent.

So that's where we're at. Turkey. Enjoying a good change of scenery, time with family, new adventures for Alia, and new sights and smells and sounds for Amelie.