She's a big girl now

Today was the big day, and day that Alara has been wanting for a very long time. In fact yesterday, she was so excited that she was running around the house saying she was 'very, very, big happy'.

No Christmas hasn't come early in Belgium, and it isn't her birthday. Today, my little girl, went to preschool for the first time.

I'm very happy, but as I sit here, in my empty house, I can't help missing her.

This morning she was so cute, she woke up, picked out her outfit, ate her breakfast and finished getting ready to go. She sat in the car talking about her teacher and the new friends that she would make today at school.

When we got to the school, she held my hand, and when the teacher came to her, she said goodbye to me, gave me a kiss and said 'see you soon'. And that was it, she was off doing 'school' things. She didn't cry, she didn't call out to me, she just went with her teacher.

To be honest, I am very happy that there weren't any tears, that I didn't have to dump a crying kid off on the teacher, that she wanted to go to school and make friends. It means that she is ready for the world outside of our house.

I'm very proud of my big girl, and can't wait till she comes home to tell me all about her big day. I hope she is still very, very, big happy.

She's Crafty

Very quickly after we had moved to Belgium, I realized that even though we have a beautiful big yard to keep Alara busy in, I was going to have to find some rainy day activities for Alara. It rains a lot here. In fact, it is raining now.

Alara has liked colouring for a long time now, so I decided to take it up a step when I found a craft activity boxed for 4 euros, and a pack of coloured paper from Ikea. At first I thought she might me a bit young for it, but then I thought, whatever, it's raining again and she is bored! So I gave it to her, showed her how to get started and let her go.

She loves it! She likes sticking things and putting things together and pulling them apart and starting again. Today she told me that she loves glitter glue and pom poms.

I love the way she sits so focused and works on her 'projects'. I try very hard not to step in and try to take over, she hasn't really 'made' anything yet, but I did help her make a card for her baba, and I can feel that there is a craft coming....

Alara and crossiants

Of course we could get croissants in Turkey, but they aren't like the ones here.

Croissants in Belgium are light and flaky, they are soooo buttery. They have crusty flakes on the outside, and a wrapped yummy dough inside. Alara loves them, she loves them plain or with chocolate. She really is very cute about them, as she stills them from your plate...

We do feel very sorry for Seyfi, who sits there watching us while he eats his gluten free croissants, that are nice, but not as nice. However, we are very grateful that we have been able to find both gluten free sliced bread (the return of sandwiches!) and gluten free croissants.

The other day, Alara and I walked to a local bakery and got some plain and chocolate croissants. We couldn't wait until we got home, so we stopped under a tree and ate one plain and one chocolate. Alara had so much fun, calling it a picnic. We'll have to do it again soon!

Alara and Leyla

*warning* This post in no way suggests that we are even thinking about having a second baby at this time.

I have this fabulous friend, Andrea. She's British, and uses some of the cutest words- she calls knee highs, 'pop socks'- when she is feeling fat she calls herself a 'lardy bloater'- and when something is expensive, she says it is 'dear'.

Besides the adorable vocabulary, Andrea is a great mom. She has got a son who is a bit older than Alara, and a daughter who is 4 months. We have been a great support to each other through out the 'rough' times of being a mother.

Alara, and Andrea's son Kadir have been friends for as long as Andrea and I. The two of them get along very well together. However, it is Andrea's little girl Leyla who Alara is completely in love with these days.

In the beginning, Alara really wanted nothing to do with her, and I was not allowed to hold her, she would look, but that was it. Now, Alara wants to play with her, hold her, and today she has started tickling her. When we were watching Leyla at the park and she started fussing, Alara told me to 'hold baby'. I think we've made a big break through.

Now, this in no way means that any of us here are ready for a second child. It just means that now when we see another baby, I can hold it too.

Alara and Clowns

We learned something new today about Alara, she is very afraid of clowns. The girl who wanted to go bungee jumping with her father is scared of a girl with some paint of her face, and even more so of a boy standing on stilts.

Our local supermarket has just re-opened (thank goodness!), and so to celebrate, outside of the store were clowns, stilt walkers and very loud music, all of which Alara does not like very much.

As we walked into the store, she started crying, and then again as we walked out she was crying. I had to buy her an ice cream scoop to calm her down (don't ask, she wanted a spoon).

Apparently, she was so traumatized by these clowns that when she talked to my dad on the phone all she said was 'clown' (well palyaco because she knows the Turkish word) and then gave the phone back to me. It was his idea for me to write a post about this.

Are any of you or your children scared of clowns?



There was no picture of my scared Alara, or the clowns so I am just posting this pretty picture of her from the other day, under a plum tree, in the park.

Alara- My little helper

There is so much going on here for our move, stuff that I'm not allowed to disclose at this point in time... (Don't worry, as soon as everything is 100%, I'll feel everyone in!)

So, today I'm just going to write about my little helper Alara. She is the apple of my eye, She loves cooking, baking, dusting and doing laundry. She likes washing vegetables, stirring batters, wiping down surfaces and hanging up clothes. If you ask her to help clean off the balcony, she runs, puts on her rubber boats and grabs a bucket. She just loves to help all of us out with our household chores.

The only thing she isn't into is vaccuuming, if we turn on the vaccuum cleaner, she runs away. Who likes vaccuuming anyway?

Alara and her Dede

Alara's Turkish grandfather is her dede. Alara loves him very much. During the week he stays at our house to help my mother in law take care of Alara. Sometimes he goes out and brings her home little treats. A new notebook to colour in, or some fresh orange juice. In the winter they can often be seen in local cafes around the neighbourhood drinking tea.

At the weekend she loves going to dede's garden We take her out to their home and she can run around, play with the other children on the street and explore the garden. For a kid living in an apartment building, this is the greatest place on earth. She spends the entire week waiting for the weekend.

Dede has now got Alara helping him in the garden. She helps him water the trees, and pick the fruit that is ripe. She digs holes for him (even if he doesn't need them) and when they are done, he hangs a swing up from a tree for her and they have a great time.

I'm not really sure who this move will be harder on Alara or Dede?

Alara and her balls

One of Alara's first words was ball. It is a word she says about a hundred times a day. She loves playing with balls. She plays soccer and basketball, she throws and rolls balls, she kicks and chases after balls. It is so adorable. She definitely has some athletic genes in her that come from her father, not me.

At a few of the shopping centres around town there are play areas that have ball pits (like the one in the picture). These ball pits combine Alara's two favourite play things, balls and slides. She absolutely loves sliding into balls.

She loves these places so much that now if we go to one of these shopping centres the first thing she wants to do is go and play with the balls. I love seeing her having fun.

The thing that is really interesting about ball being one of her first words is how she reacts to the word. We live in a bilingual house. Seyfi and I both speak English and Turkish. He always speaks in Turkish to her, and I always speak in English. Seyfi's parents are learning English at the same time as Alara, so obviously they are always speaking Turkish. However, with the word ball (and there are many others), Alara decided that for at least a year she was only going to call it a ball and never a 'top' (which is Turkish).

She called it a ball to everyone, her grandparents, children in the park, other adults, and rarely did they understand, but she kept going and a ball was what it was. It has only been this last week, that she has started calling it a 'top' to people who she seems to know won't understand.

This is a huge step in her language development. She has always known that with me she should use the English word (if she knew it), and for a long time she was just choosing to use the shorter or easier word. Now, we are seeing her switch back and forth between the two languages, and it is amazing!

I remember when, and actually still to this day, people ask how can a child learn two languages at the same time? I knew deep down that it would be alright, that we weren't creating a freak, but, let me tell you, I was worried. So far it seems to be going well, and I couldn't be happier.

It's raining... again

It's raining today, and it was raining yesterday, and it was cold the day before.

I never complain about rain here in Turkey. After you've lived through two or more summers where there are long water cuts, nothing is green and everyone is in a water panic, you don't mind, in fact you love when it is raining.

But for a kid who doesn't understand that we really do need this rain, life is tough. Poor Alara, she hasn't been to the park in two days, and this morning we could see that she wanted to at least be outside.

I can say that I have great in-laws. I hear that most Turkish in-laws would not be too happy with the thought of their little grandchild out in the rain. But not mine, they loved the idea. They knew she would be happy and that the fresh air would do her good. There was not even a look of opposition.

So, we all bundled up (the four adults and Alara) into warm clothes, raincoats and rain boots and headed to the pazar. We couldn't go to the park we thought, we'd spend the whole time mopping up slide and swings while it continued raining.

Our walk was lovely, there was a slight mist, but it was in a way romantic. Naturally, a romantic walk would be better if my husband was in town, and I wasn't out with the in-laws, but it was still nice.

The big news is that Alara used an umbrella for the first time, and loved it. We will definitely need to get her a kid umbrella in Belgium. I hear it rains there a lot.