Fun (with a little bit of car commercial)

Harrison or "Har-bear"
car partying

by the bean...

T. Cal announced he was going to brush his teeth while we were driving to the park and my husband and I yessed him, like we usually do when we are having a serious conversation about cabinetry. We only discovered when we arrived at the park that he indeed had a toothbrush and tooth paste in hand and had in fact brushed his pearly whites.

Yay for toothbrushes in the back seat and new houses to move them into. I love sweet moments.

Sister Sunday

My sister (on right) and her longtime friend

ran the race together

Yesterday was a good day. I almost had 100% sister contact.

Since our apartment is toy free and mess full, keeping the kiddies out of the house has been part of my job description so going to the beach yesterday morning was on the agenda.

We left and I called ahead to my beach sister but got no responses because the cell-phone less sister was already out of the house. But I went anyway to let the boys freeze in the sea breeze. Another sister was running in what my mom, who always sees more when there is less, keeps referring to as a "half-marathon" not knowing what the K was really for when there is a 5 in front of it. So - I called her, but assumed she was already on the run since there was no answer.

We stopped at the inlet and the boys popped out of the car and were reminded of what the ocean looks like and what the sand feels like before running back into the car for warmth. When we pulled out of the parking spot and rolled toward the main road, we were shewed aside by a policeman leading the half-marathoner charge.

I pulled aside and started the search for Aunt Therese, without any luck. I thought that was it - we weren't going to catch a glimpse of the runner or be able to give our support, but at least we breathed the same air for a few minutes.

Calvin kept asking, "She have a doggy?" I clarified that no, that was Aunt Kristin (the beach sister).

"Are we going to her house?"

"No Calvin, we are going home" I kept saying, hoping the dialogue would end there.

Then, it happened, we were stopped at another crossing and in the long wait, there she was! Hair a bouncing, getting her jog on. We honked and waved and got all excited. This is the sort of spontaneity I love about living here. Then we headed home.

Calvin kept asking if we were going to Aunt Kristin's and if she was the one with the dog. He told me that the rule was that we go to Grandma and Grandpa's and then we go see Aunt Kristin.

After spending the rest of the evening at my parent's house, we stopped at "my sister who just bought a place's" house - because she is kinda on the way home. On the way - Calvin clarified that we were going to Aunt Kristin's, the one with the dog, after Aunt Chant's.

The boys had a good run at Aunt Chant's, starting from the door and steamrolling into uncle K for the entire hour we were there.

When we got in the car, Calv asked again, "We going to Aunt Kristin's house? She have a dog?"

I couldn't believe he remembered, and the answer was not received well since we had to break his rule.

I feel so blessed to be living near so much family and being able to see them so frequently, even if we don't always stop at the house of the one who has the dog.

Piles of It

A little of this in the morning...

produces some of this in the afternoon...

and this in the afternoon...

some of this in the evening...

and choosing to go to this place for a "Night at the Museum"...left this on the floor since the morning...

We chose fun today.

I have a secret to tell you: it is always worth it.

Valentine's Day Weekend

Running into icy cold water and running out is my kind of Valentine's Day.

Especially when I am the one taking pictures of it.

Defined

Spontaneity is something I lacked the two years I lived in Turkey. Service buses were a way of life.

Wait a second...that is meaningless to you, and to explain it would just take too many words.

Maybe this is better...our lives were planned and it wasn't our choice?

Let me try again... Imagine sharing rides all the time with about 75 people in your neighborhood and doing so at specific times to specified, predetermined locations. This is not only something we were subjected to, living as a foreigner on the campus of a school 45 minutes from center city Istanbul, but a significant portion of the not so wealthy population in Istanbul also used service buses as a way of life.

It led to an extremely communal life, with some benefits, but ultimately a life that lacks any sort of spontaneity.

We never left campus unless it was by service bus (or the occasional taxi to get to the airport or the hospital to give birth), and other people only entered campus to work or attend the school that was there.

If you haven't followed the logistics up to this point, this means that our colleagues were our friends, and our colleague's kids were our kids' friends. It felt sort of incestuous at times, and we had to shape ourselves according to whoever came to live on campus any given year.

So, on the Saturdays when we didn't feel like trekking into the city for 8 hours with our 2 year old on a bus, with 20 other people who we worked with 40 hours a week and lived with the other 128, we were on campus - wandering around like nomads without a land to wander in and with nowhere to be. We had no definition.

I felt spontaneous today.

As a working American mother, I gave my kisses after walking in the door, threw on coats and shoes and whisked the boys to a magical place - the public park.

The park is the center of spontaneity. There is a chance to go to the one with the fireman's pole and the mini-zoo one day and the castle-like structure the next. There is a chance people we have never seen before might talk to us or play with us. There is a chance we will hear Spanish being spoken, and I can convince myself that I really would speak fluently if I was friends with a Spanish speaker. There is a chance friends who live somewhere else and work somewhere else might be there too. There is a chance (albeit slim) my husband might meet us there because he wants to spend time with the family, not because he wanted to escape the four walls of our home and the park was his only option.

When faced with many choices, choosing the park feels so virtuous.