Here is a little snippet from Azra's summer show on the weekend. She was a parrot. She was very quiet, especially if you consider that she is the only one whose English is her mother tongue. She was far more interested in looking at all the parents sitting watching. This was her first show whereeas the other children it was at least their second show if not more. She was probably trying to understand what was actually going on. It was nice how the date coincided with father's day. A nice father's day present for Azra's father and all the other dads there.

Azra is at school!

Azra is almost 3 years old and we decided that it was time she go to school. I am going everyday anyway and we want her to get used to going to school after the summer holidays, so we decided it was time that Azra start going to school 2 days a week. What a big thing for me. Of course it is always the mother who has to get the child ready, the child's bag, the child's breakfast, not to mention herself.... what happened to gender equity, well you could say that it doesn't actually exist, or at least not here! Anyway Azra is enjoying school very much. She loves the teacher, she talks about her friends and of course she loves going to school as we ride the bike, she's on the back watching the other people, or looking at the animals, the sea and whatever, or sometimes learning words from me like 'stupid' when there is someone who is walking on the bike track and then of course she repeats this word over and over to my chagrin. I realise that I have to keep my comments to myself about the people in our way! She has been going to school for 4 weeks now but the last week she got really ill, cold, fever, conjunctivitis, but we have been able to get her to heal naturally, but of course mum gets ill as well.
It is now one week later and I am able to write again! Azra is practising at school for the summer show which is on Friday. There are 5 more days of school left! Wow fantastic! Of course I will miss the kids though! I will post a photo here maybe of Azra performing! We also went to Bodrum a month ago to enjoy hot weather of course now here it is very hot! 

Azra is now 2 and 5 months

A long time has passed since I last wrote here. Almost 6 months which in anybody's life is a long time but in a 2 year old's life oh so much more. What developments we have seen in the last 6 months. She is now speaking 2 languages pretty well, forming sentences in both, being funny in both. The first picture is obviously of her 2nd birthday and now after a few of her friends having birthday parties she has a good concept of what birthdays are! And the second is of her third beach experience, although this one is in Singapore on the way to Australia. She was an absolute hit in Singapore. I thought she was regarded as such in Turkey but they relaly loved her in Singapore, young adult boys and girls even! The third and fourth are from our trip in Australia with family, her cousins, uncle and grandmother. Since our trip to Australia she has been cementing her friendships in the local park, developing her social nature, and getting on the back of my bike which she loves oh so much! She has been growing and developing her linguistic skills as well. She can count to 10 now in both languages, sing the ABC song as well as loads of other songs. She has really favourite books. Her current one is 'the tiger skin rug' which is a lovely storybook, on account of that one of her latest words is Rajah! Here she is wearing her favourite accessory: sunglasses, whoever is brave enough to give them to her! And there she is making friends on holiday. The photo on the lounge is one of the latest ones although it doesn't seem very wintery. She likes being clotheless! Although the difference is that now she is toilet trained. In the last photo she is playing with the sewing machine as she loves to do whenever she sees it out! I haven't got a photo but I bought her some rainboots which she loves going outside in and splashing in every puddle that she can find. Now there is no excuse for her not going outside in the rain. she wears her raincoat, rainboots and even takes her umbrella - every prevention. I now am at home a little more at least some afternoons, I usually have to do some work. At first it was impossible to do work but she is starting to understand explanations and now lets me work at home. This is a huge relief!
It's getting close to Christmas. We put up the Christmas tree and every day she has been taking it down redecorating it! Happy Christmas!

Azra is getting very close to her 2nd birthday, just one more month! Now adays she is spending alot of time outside in the sun, in the park or with the flowers as the photo shows, she is trying to blow the dandelions but actually just gets all the bits over her mouth. In the second photo in one of the parks we go to there is a dog pen and she loves nothing more than to go into that pen and pretend she is a dog, if there are dogs there than she spends all of her time just trying to talk to them rather than playing in the playground! Developmentally how is she doing? Let's see, linguistically she is still just saying words, words as varied from 'itchy' to 'chicken' and in Turkish she says acayim mi? alot- shall I open it. No stringing words togther yet. Physically she is a little monkey, climbing up chains in the park or going over the top of the monkey bars, holding on to the sides, she is far above the kids her age at the park, but that is more to do with Turkish parents than with Azra as they tend to overprotect rather than let their kids free. They always have plenty to say to me! She kisses alot. That is me and her father and her nanny but also other kids at the park, it is very cute! She has all her teeth but the very back ones. In terms of food she eats no fruit unless the apple has been cooked and we can maybe sneak some grated kiwi or something into it or she east dried fruit. Vegetables...well she will eat soups and things but only really peas, carrots or potatoes but also raw mushrooms. Her favourites are still fish, chicken or turkey or bread, bulgur or rice. She loves her food though. Apparently that is very cancer sign or so says my friend. She has the biggest belly of all her friends in the park! Now though she has learnt to touch and point to ours! Fair enough I guess, even if demoralising! She also loves putting our shoes on. I guess this is normal, her friend ali put on a show for her while wearing his mother's shoes a few months ago. I also remember a photo of me doing the same. Nowadays she is on her artistic phase, drawing over everything, in the hope of preventing that I put paper on the walls but it doesn't entirely prevent her from drawing elsewhere! She is great fun, laughing all the time, at us, at herself, crying, playing....

Azra the tourist

Earlier this month we took Azra to Northern Cyprus on a short 4 day holiday and she showed us how much she can walk! We rented a car and drove around to the places we had not been able to go before, especially the east of the island which is completely unspoilt and undeveloped (there is a picture her of golden beach)- it would be a great place to camp in warmer weather. We explored the ruins to 2 castles and Azra was really great in the amount that she walked and of course when she got tired there was always her dad's shoulders. We also explored some Roman ruins (well half of the ruins as they were to big to walk around for Azra and it was lightly raining). We took Azra down to a beach where she showed that she could still eat the sand! And if not eat then put it all over her and down her back! It was great while we were in Cyprus, lots of fresh air, cheddar cheese and bacon, and Azra went to sleep at night really easily. Just after we got back the last remaining upper teeth came through, now all that's missing are the back molars. We can say a mouthful of teeth.

Azra is 1 1/2 years old!

How has time flown by so quickly? Azra is growing up! She is no longer a baby anymore, actually it was she who became cognizant of that fact not her parents! She picks up photos of when she was smaller, or pictures in books, a babies on the street and she says 'baby, baby'! She also refuses to wear a bib and often to sit in her high chair (which is only a chair by the way which is at the same height as the table and so we all use the same table). Actually baby is one of the few words which she uses. Her active vocabulary also includes apple and doggy (although she usually just says 'how, how') and mummy and baba or sometimes daddy. She is much behind her friends but she is bilingual so no comparisions should be made. We arranged a playgroup a week ago- a total of 4 babies sorry children. Azra had a lot of fun. She and another baby discovered the potato and onion basket, Azra took the potatoes and onions out- first to try to eat them, and then the friend discovered the joy of trying to throw them in the basket- missing the basket but getting the window behind which meant that they still ended up in the basket, then of course Azra would get them out and throw them on the ground. They both had great belly (and Azra's belly is very large, therefore so are her belly laughs!) laughs. She is a great destroyer. You build a sandcastle or whatever at the park, she knocks it down, you build something with her blocks, she comes and pulls it apart. You draw something to encourage her to draw, she scribbles over it. Maybe that is where her creativity lies! Her independence streak shows itself still. Refusing to hold your hand outside when walking, always pushing your hand away when you try to do something for her, or give her food. I'll do it my way she says! Okay! Maybe that is the lesson that I need to learn! It seems that if I am to make any observations about her inclinations that she is musically inclined, always banging on things, dancing, singing away, and she has a great love of books, her own picture books obviously but she has an attachment to a Turkish translation of Charles Dicken's Great expectations! Interesting choice! It is a hard cover but it has only one picture in it and that is of Dickens himself. Yet she continuously gets it from the bookshelf and sits down with it on the couch and flicks through it. Her drawing skills are getting better, but every time we give her markers, after drawing with them she just sucks out the ink from them- they are supposedly non-toxic.....but.... This is the most amazing time so far, maybe as one of my friends says as they grow up little by little you keep on labelling that period as the best! But she is so interactive and communicative and funny. She has her own language which she chats to herself in. But she is just so funny, always doing funny things, always laughing. She loves hiding for example. But she always goes to the same place, we just play the game...'where is Azra'. One night she ran behind the curtains in the bedroom as we were putting her to bed, but just after hiding she let out a great amount of gas! Obviously she needs to work on that one a bit more! She has an admirer at the kiosk at the park. When I take her there, she is more interested in running to the kiosk than playing on the swings etc. I let her go, she plays around the tables and chairs. But last weekend I learnt the reason for this attraction. It is a young man of around 25 who shows great interest in her! Oh Azra, are you playing around with my tables again...??? At which point she puts her head down and stares at the ground but then when he is not talking to her and she thinks he is not looking at her she stares longingly at him and if he doesn't look at her she starts making sounds for him to look at her. This is typical behaviour for her when she is obviously attracted to a man...and at such a tender age...I hate to think what is going to happen later! Her eating habits have changed in that she often refuses to eat unless she is on the table! Have we been to permissive or is it normal or is it because she sees the cat there (yes I know it is shameful but our cat freely roams everywhere!).She is quite a good eater though beans, lentils, mushrooms and the obvious ones like fish, chicken, cheese etc. but I can't get her to eat fruit with the exception of apple! No mandarins or oranges - not even their juice. And she loves her fennel tea!!!

Azra is almost 16 months old.

Wow what huge advances we are seeing in Azra's development. She has just started her climbing phase. She is so pleased with herself, she can get up on the couch herself and the lounge chairs and she sits there by herslef like an adult. Sometimes she takes a book with her, climbs up and then sits there and reads. She can't yet get up on the dining chairs yet though, thankfully!
She has also started feeding herself, which is not always sucessful but she will not have it any other way. When it comes to us, mum and dad, she will not be spoon fed, even if what she has is runny soup or yoghurt (The childminder can somehow feed her though). Some of it goes in her mouth, some on the floor and sometimes, when she is experimenting, on her head, her arms our arms and so on. We bought a fork and spoon and just left them with her at mealtimes. We never actively got her to use them, she herself just started picking them up and then after a while refused to be fed She is amazing to watch, I can watch her for ages. Give her a jar, a lid and a few other things and it is just amazing how much she can find to do with these things and how she can amuse herself. She can run around with her hands full and then she thinks where she can put the other things she so wants to carry. It goes in her mouth!
She also without fail carries her nappy to the garbage bin and throws it in. She also, as part of the ritual, looks around to see if anyone is watching and if she has an audience she claps herself. She also claps when we finish something, for example doing up her pajamas before she goes to sleep. Speaking of sleep, she (and her mum) have had a bad 6 weeks. First of all her bottom teeth were coming through and then her top 2 molars and then straight afterwards her bottom molars. Now they are pretty much finished. Now she might be able to sleep a bit better, at least waking up every 3 hours rather than every 1-2 hours. Hopefully we will all have a break.
It has been a month since we returned from her second trip to Australia, to answer the question in the previous entry Nanna waited for us, but unfortunately passed away just after we had returned to Turkey and we were unable to return for the funeral. I guess that's how it was meant to be. Sad as it was. At least we could spend some time with her while we were there. Azra was not really herself for much of the time in Australia. She got ill 3 times, hanging around in the hospital did not help at all. She was great when her cousins were around though. She seems to adore them. A pity that she can't see them more. It was also great for her to be out of the city and in an unpolluted rural environment. When we got back to Turkey and our house she was so excited. She would pull her toys out, as if they were new or as if she were seeing them for the first time or as if she had really missed them. And then she went from room to room. She is also now great friends with the cat, actually what I mean is that they are great friends, she always admired him, he just didn't feel the same. I think that even he (as well as her dad) missed her while she was away.