Children's Bayram

Tomorrow is Children's Bayram, a holiday created by Ataturk to celebrate children. Today schools all over Turkey are putting on shows for parents (very much like Holiday shows in the US) and children are given honorary positions for the day, like principal, teachers, etc. Nehir was dressed up in very cute, traditional Turkish clothing and his class sang several songs, and then did a traditional Turkish dance. He then danced, with the rest of the primary school, to "Greased Lightening." He was very enthusiastic and adorable. He was clearly enjoying himself and he performed wonderfully (I am not biased or anything!) Tomorrow, there is some other thing with the school, I don't quite understand what, and then for the rest of the holiday, Nehir and Taylan will get to tell us what they want to do and eat, etc. I have a feeling Nehir will suggest watching TV or playing computer games all day. I guess I will have to intervene, kid rule can only go so far after all. I will write more about it tomorrow and hopefully post some pictures (although I mostly took video).

A famous singer was invited to sing a song, and afterwords she ran into Ayse who was outside with Taylan who had started to fuss. She took a shine to Taylan and took lots of photos of him. I have to say, there is something about Taylan that makes people want to take his picture. He has a way of batting his long eyelashes and making funny and cute faces at people. There are times when he seriously looks like he is just waiting for someone to come take his picture, like the other day, he got to the top of the slide platform, lay on his tummy with his head in his hands, tilted is head sideways and gave a sly grin. It was hilarious how much it looked like he was posing for a photographer. I wonder if he is trying to be cute?

In other Taylan news, I FINALLY weened him, thanks to a suggestion from BabaAnne that I use tomato paste to make the milk taste yucky. I know Taylan likes tomato paste so I used lemon juice instead and it worked amazingly well. He would beg to nurse, but then when he tasted the lemon he would make a face and pull off instead. He never cried or seemed upset. He actually seemed embarrassed for me. He looked like he was thinking "Oh dear, how to I politely tell Mom her milk tastes like lemons?" He was cracking me up.

I have actually written many blog entries in my mind, I just don't get around to actually writing very often. I will try to do better but don't hold your breath.