19 August
2010
First train
Yesterday Selim went to preschool...for 15 minutes... as part of his entrance interview. It sounds like he "passed," because we will be receiving an admission letter and be asked to put down a deposit in a few weeks. This is for September 2011, mind you.
Anyway, while at the preschool, Selim got exposed to his first train set. It took him a few minutes of hesitation, but by the time we were ready to leave, he was hooked! Later than evening, while we were playing, I said to the adults "should I give him the train set we bought him last month?" As if on cue, Selim started bouncing up and down and cheering loudly. What's a mommy going to do? I ran downstairs and brought his first box of Thomas! He enthusiastically ran to the box, but once we opened it, we were all quite disappointed. The box was full of filler cardboard, the tracks don't go through the fake tunnel, and the magnetic boulders are round, so when thrown across the room they disappear (unlike the many-prismic boulders from his digger toy). Oh and one needs to BUY many more extra tracks to make the ride worth it. Imagine that!
I'm not saying never though. I suspect that there will be many more Thomas boxes in his future...
17 August
2010
whoa, I'm a grown up!
If you know me, you know that I resist growing up. In high school, "Hook" (sequel to Peter Pan, the boy who never wanted to grow up) was my favorite movie. In college, I wanted to relive high school, in my 20s, I wanted to be back in college, and in the few years of my 30s, despite having a husband, mortgage and a baby, I had been yearning for my 26's. Will this end? Perhaps right now...
Last night, I was listening to a report on NPR about a new service that lets incoming college freshmen select their roommates based on facebook-like profiles. They interviewed two freshmen boys who chose each other based on their mutual love for video games, and probably for the first time in 10 years, it was not ME who I imagined as a college freshman, but Selim! I mean, if you do some math, Selim is as close to being a college freshman than myself!
(I was a freshman 14 years ago. In 14 years, Selim will be almost 16, which is practically college age for a prodigy like Selim!)
I, Ayse Hortacsu, hereby declare that I am, gasp, a grown-up. Can I stop working out now?
12 July
2010
eye candy
Yesterday when we pulled up to the house, there was a lady taking photos of our roses. Hey, if they are good enough for her, they are good enough for me!
Enjoy!
Garden poll
We need some help. Since we don't know much about gardens, much less about garden design, I'd like to ask the blog readers, especially those who are on vacation with access to internet to chime in!
We would like to plant a tree in front of our house, to the right of the stairs.
(sorry about the funky word wrap, I don't know how to fix it)
We would have about 3ftx3ft space to put a POT in. There is no dirt there, so the tree has to live in a pot. Other limitations are that the tree should not get too wide to block the stairs or push against the windows, and it shouldn't grow too far past 8-10feet.
I have been looking around the neighborhood and taking pictures of trees I like. I figure if they can raise it, so can we!
Here we go:
1.) Princess plant. We have a small shrub of this already. It's not thriving, but I see neighbors with almost tree like shrubs:
2.) Fig. Wouldn't it be SO cool to have a fig tree in front of the house, just like we do in Istanbul?
3.) Tree with purple flowers. Please tell me what this tree is! We have them all around the neighborhood and by my office:
4.) Magnolia.
5.) Ornamental plum. But really, do we NEED more plums?
09 July
2010
Good to be back!
I was out of town for two days and returned very late last night. As I quietly opened the door, I saw a small package right in front of the door. It was... a box of half-used strawberry jello (for the Bishop's strawberry pie recipe) in a ziploc bag. How odd... Then I continued walking down the hall and saw a body brush (big handle so you can brush your back in the shower, we keep it in the upstairs bathroom) lying in front of Selim's door... and then I saw my shaving cream on top of my dresser. Goldilocks and his dad have been making a mess while I was gone! All was well.
