Azra and her feet

As you can see Azra is still entranced by her ability to put her foot in her mouth. Now she has shoes with bottoms, not just the crocheted ones now so she has even more reason to stick them in her mouth, she can chew on them as well, and she has done this so much that has chewed a hole in the bottom of her shoes, and that is definitely not from walking! Here her friend Ali takes her lead and decides not to miss out on the joy of foot chewing!

Azra is 10 months old!

Today Azra was 10 months old. We have seen leaps and bounds in her development this month. She is almost ready to walk. She is standing up and she can now get herself up just with momentum, without holding onto anything. She is still a yoga baby as you can see!
She is going to the park everyday with her nanny and getting on the swing. Apparently she sings (ahhh ahhh ahhh gahh gahhh gahhh etc.) while she is on the swing. She also likes the slippery dip and just sitting in the sandpit. She loves the sand sifting through her hands. We might have to take her to the beach soon. The weather is beautiful, spring is here. We could comfortable take her to the beach.
She especially likes things which make sound at the moment. She has discovered vitamin bottles and the sound the pills make when she shakes the bottle. So I have replaced the pills with dried beans or rice so as to have different sounds. She loves it!
She can't stand having socks on her feet, as soon as you put them on she yanks them off. What she uses them for is either to swing them in each hand or to have in her hands as she crawls around - to stop her hands from getting cold???
She is not over opening all the cupboards and the fridge yet. Sometimes when I say no, she will cry, perhaps when she is tired, other times she will just turn around and go to something else, but as soon as you turn your back she is back to the original thing!
She crawls into the bathroom as we fill up her bath and now she watches the whole process, the bath being filled up, she sticks her hand in the shower head. It is like she can't wait to get into the bath. After the bath she loves diving into the duvet on our bed and then she jumps over to her bed and swings on the bars of the cot. It is like she is elated that she is going to bed- or maybe she just loves the bedroom and her bed!
She has learned about manipulation. Like I said if I say no to her if she is not in a great mood then she starts crying. Also if she wants something she throws her head back and starts crying. On the plus side outside she smiles at anyone trying to get them to look at her and communicate with her.
She is fine when I leave in the morning but when I come back in the afternoon she often cries. I guess when she sees me she realises that I have not been there.
She is getting more active, she is getting very fast at crawling and sidling along things. It is impossible to leave her alone for more than a minute.
She is not saying anything yet except mamamam, does that mean mum or is it just a string of sounds? gagaga, gwa or just aaaah...
She is eating most things we give her, as well as the cardboard and things that we don't give her. She has even demonstrated a like for beans and lentils which is good! Nothing is as good as yoghurt though!
We took her to one of the big parks during tulip festival time. Tulips are an important symbol of Ottoman Turkey and Istanbul, so I thought this was a nice way for Azra to get in touch with her culture! I even let her get close to the dark purple tulips, not really a good idea because of course a gentle touch is never enough!

Azra is 9 months old

Azra is 9 months old. (Actually 9 months and 10days now!) Life has become much more difficult in terms of looking after her, but more fun. She has discovered the joys of independence. A few weeks ago she was happy just sort of crawling about a metre. Now she races from one end of the house to the other crawling and sidles up to anything so that she can stand and drum her hands on the surface of anything that will make a sound. She is slowly discovering that everything is awaiting her. She loves opening the fridge, opening cupboards and getting things to fall on the ground. Now giving her a bath is a bit of a task. She used to just sit in the bath, we would give her her little ducks, read her books and bathe her. Now when we give her her ducks she picks them up out of the water, stands up and drops them out of the bath and then peers over the side to see where they have fallen, the book that she used to be read to from she does the same, picks it up and drops it then leans over to see where it has fallen. She stands up and whatever is in her reach is fair game, cupboard doors to open, the flush of the toilet, banging on the shower cabin. To wash her has become quite difficult. Now the weather has started warming up so for the past 3 weekends we have been able to take her out to the park overlooking the sea and sit her on the grass. The first time she did it she just sat there in awe. The second time was pretty much the same with a little tasting of the grass, now to keep her from eating the grass is a task and the last time I took her down she started crawling around the grass. Everybody adores her and now, perhaps unfortunately, she is so used to people taking notice of her that she looks at passersby expectantly! It is a nice social thing I think but I am not sure of the effect. We will see! Her nanny and her seem to like each other very much. They seem to have a lot of fun together and when she comes in the morning and says 'morning' Azra always has a big smile ready! She has to started saying 'ga' and beckoning with her hands. This seems to be 'come'. Now instead of carrying her to the bathroom to have her bath I stand in the doorway of the bathroom after preparing her bath and say to her 'come, come, come' and she races down the hallway. She also says 'ga' and beckons to the cat. Funnily enough the cat doesn't come to her though!!! A case of very unrequited love!
In the last month she has had two more teeth appear. Actually one month ago we were thinking anyday they will appear but they have only broken through the gum in the last week (second right upper) and the first right upper tooth has just broken through so these are causing a problem at night still. Azra will be addicted to homeopathic chamomile soon as we have been giving it to her for so long. She sees me pushing one pill out into the cap, she opens her mouth wide and even pushes my hands to empty the cap into her waiting mouth!
As we see her developing there definitely seems to be a very emotional part of her character but at the same time quite a I know what I want aspect as well and I will do things when I want. This would be the Leo part of her character! She loves spending time outside, but then doesn't everybody. This shows that she isn't just a cancer which is a relief!
Something interesting about being a mother has reared its ugly head reminding me of my feminist side. A mother can be ill but very little will change. She still has to look after the baby and life goes on pretty much as before. A father gets ill and the world stops, He can't look after the baby and has to go to bed and stay there and get things delivered, or at least hope for some such thing! Oh this life is terribly hard for the male in a patriarchal society! The more I think about I definitely agree with the thesis that the power structure of the patriarchal society is based on the threat they feel from women's reproductive powers and therefore need to do everything they can to oppress women and their power and maintain their own power. It's all about the baby!

Azra is 8 months old! She is growing so fast before my very eyes. She has 2 more new teeth in the upper jaw on the left and two more just about to come through on the right side. While mum goes off guiltily to work she is being looked after by her nanny. She seems to like her very much. When I am leaving in the morning and Emma comes in and says good morning to Azra, azra always gives her a big smile. When I come back they are usually playing together having fun, which is such a relief for me to see. Even though I have the luxury of working 4 days a week (although only until July) I still feel guilty going off to work and wish that I could spend more time with Azra, but it is a little bit difficult being the main breadwinner in the family yet being influenced either by maternal hormones telling me I should stay home or is it ideology telling me? I wouldn't be able to stay at home completely for too long but I would appreciate a bit more time. Now it is very rare that we are at home alone, but when we are it is great!
Azra has started crawling, although she has been doing it for a week or two now but hasn't picked up too much speed. She has discovered the joy of pulling books off the shelf, or magazines off the table. She is also in awe of our cat Yaramaz. She gets excited when he comes near and can't stop herself from touching (or pulling) his fur. I am hoping that he will be able to resist biting her when she does get overexcited to see him nearby. She claps her hands in excitement and when you put her on her back she also claps her feet! She picks up things with both hands and bangs them together. Maybe she has some sort of musical thing going on....every mother hopes to see such innate talents I imagine! She is getting better at doing yoga, pictured here in downward dog again! She still hasn't got much in the way of hair, just a little down on her head!


This is Azra's friend Ali, he is 5 weeks older than her but his mum has also started work again as well, so it will be difficult for them to find time to spend together unfortunately.

Azra is 7 months old

Azra in 2 days will be 7 months old. Where has that 7 months gone? She is developing amazingly. She has been sitting up by herself for almost 2 weeks. I am on holiday at the moment so I get to spend all day with her again, this I missed very much! I wish I could spend this time with her until she is 2, but economic reality makes this a bit difficult. Today as I was getting her to sleep I was lucky enough to witness some of her latest feats! I get her to sleep by laying her on her tummy and then patting both her bottom and her back rhythmically and massaging her back while laying next to her. In the last few days she has been less likely to lay still as I do this but today she decided to try out her new yoga poses. She has been doing the cobra for ages (getting up on her belly with her arms stright) but in the last few days she has also been doing cat and cow (all fours) and today she started downward dog (all fours and bum up in air)! Actually she had her face down in the sheets and was moving forward with the momentum! Such ingenious things these babies! She has sort of started eating solids in some sense. Actually we started with fruit when she was a bit over 6 months old, not really a meal but just to get the taste of foods. Our aim is not to abandon breastmilk but just to introduce her to foods. So we started with avocado which she seemed to like at first but then a few times later just let it all dribble out of her mouth. Then we went on to banana which she seemed to like sucking when it was whole but was not very interested in as a food. Then we went to cooked apple, a teaspoonful is ok- but only that much. I have discovered that she loves yoghurt. In the effort to try and get her to sleep better at night I give her yoghurt mixed with ground rice. It hasn't really worked yet to that effect though! I also mix in apple as that seems the only way she will eat it. Today I cooked carrot, she wasn't interested in that either until we mixed it with yoghurt!
The sleeping problem!!! Well as can be seen in the photo her two bottom teeth have come through, when these were coming through we had such a nightmare at night, at least crying every hour, so I started feeding her more. This was when I was going to work as well so I would be destroyed the next day getting a maximum of 1 hour of sleep at a time. Now the teeth have come through but the sleep has not got any better, just the crying at night has lessened! Let's hope this doesn't continue. These night times and work do not mix very well! Her bath times have become a lot of fun. She has many little ducks and books to accompany her in the bath. She no longer cries as she gets out of the bath. Except she does resist getting dressed so she will cry a little then. We are looking for a nanny for 10 days as Husnu is studying for an exam and I will be back at work. We have started interviewing, that's interesting. Foreigners are quite expensive but at least they speak English. The worrying thing is trust. How do you know you can trust them? Will they run off with your gorgeous baby, sell her kidneys or something. Interestingly and hopingly unrelated Turkey has an extremely high rate of missing and unfound children.....

Jetsetting!

We are back from our big trip to Oz! Azra did pretty well for a little baby I reckon. She coped with around a 24 hour trip there and back, only crying on the descent (I guess because of the pressure in her ears) and when there was turbulence meaning that I would have to take her out of the bassinet which of course would wake her up from her well deserved slumber. She met lots of new faces during her one month stay and only towards the end of the month cried when she met someone new - for instance my brother- her uncle Tony- but after the initial cry she became attached to him, sleeping on his shoulder more than once. I guess the crying might indicate that she is slowly getting the stranger concept. If this is so does that mean separation anxiety is around the corner? Tomorrow I start work after a 6 month break (how wonderful that was even if that time seemed to zoom by) so we will see if there are any problems caused with the separation. I doubt it seeing that I left her in Australia for 4 consecutive days with family from 8.30-6.30 and she was fine and then for short periods after that I also left her in the hands of family.
Anyway being in Australia was great even if I faced criticism for breastfeeding Azra solely until 6 months. I guess everybody thinks that what they know and what they did with their children is right and the best- just like the criticism that we face here for taking her out in the sun or not bundling her up like an eskimo. She spent loads of time in the great outdoors (as Australians are want to refer to it!) it was a bit strange as the weather has obviously been affected by global warming- one day 38 degrees and the very next day 25! I think she must have suffered a lot after coming back and being lucky to be taken out for half an hour in the cold. Now it is snow weather so we can't go outside for ling periods of time. Today even I froze!
She took about 3-4 days to adjust to the time difference but it wasn't so bad for her as our plane arrived at 7 in the morning and she had slept on and off for the previous 9 hours- her mum however had a different experience! Anyway her dad was pretty happy to see her. We were waiting in the airport as he had been held up in traffic and he came running over to her and couldn't take his eyes or hands off her- at least I got a greeting! Can't expect to much though I guess. He has been great with her ever since we got back allowing me to have a bit of time for myself. He starts looking after her tomorrow. He is not as scared as he was before we left for Australia but of course naturally he still has his fears about it. To be fair it is not something that Turkish men normally do. Today was the first time that he had looked after since us coming back to Turkey. He was stress-free on my return (unlike the previous few times) as now it is no hassle to get her to drink my milk from her bottle, much to her dad's relief! Thanks to my aunt who got her to accept the bottle now he is very relaxed!
Anyway while in Australia we went from Sydney to Melbourne and then to where my family is in Gloucester. Azra has become quite the jetsetter! She seemed to be happy wherever we were and with whoever we were with even if it took her a couple of days to get used to new beds and such. We spent her first Christmas in Gloucester with family. That was nice. You can see her christmas dress courtesy of our friend Mary. In the following photo are the four generations, Azra, me, her grandmother and her great grandmother and Azra's cousins. Everyone says that Azra looks like her youngest cousin- the one on my left.
Since we've been back we have been experimenting with food. She has always loved sucking on apple cores but we have not been able to get her to swallow any food yet. We have tried teething biscuits and avocado everything still comes dribbled out though!
She is now 6 months- well actually tomorrow she will be- a great celebration- her mum leaves her to return to fulltime work! I am not looking forward to it especially the 1 hour journey everyday there.
Until next time!

On the eve of Azra's first big trip

Azra is now 4 months and 3 weeks. She is around 7 1/2 kilos and about 63cm. She is growing out now! The first few months were growing up!One morning she discovered that she was able to such on Daddy's nose- how happy she was when she allowed her to- even if later on it made it purple from the bruising. She used his nose as a teether! She has discovered her feet and now when she is on her back she can't get enough of holding them. You try to put her nappy on and she is holding her feet, try to dress her she is holding her feet, put her on the bed, she is holding her feet! Maybe we would too if we could hold them as easy as babies can! Her other favourite thing is blowing air through her lips and creating little bubbles everywhere, especially all over her top. When she does this at 5am in the morning, which she does pretty much every morning, it is sort of so cute it that you don't get frustrated that she can't get back to sleep! We think she is beginning to go through teething as her mouth is like a saliva tap- it has been for the last 2 months- and for the last month she can't get enough of biting things!
It is 1 day and a bit before we fly to Australia. I am a little apprehensive as to what it will be like to spend 24 hours alone with Azra, most of it on the small space of a plane! If I weren't so worried about swine flu then others who are interested could take her and play with her if they so wanted, but now to do such a thing is probably too risky. I have been trying to get her to go to sleep earlier so that she could maybe adjust a little easier. It was working a little but tonight it is 11pm and we are still trying to get her to sleep! I think it will be quite a challenge on the plane! My apprehension is about this trip, but her dad's is about the month ahead. Actually he says it will be like a holiday! Let's see!