Little Bear

No, it's not Halloween. It's so cold in our house that Nate has been wearing this bear suit for days now. It's the warmest thing he has. We've hit that time of year when it's really cold, but not quite time to start burning coal. We hear it will be started in the next day or so. In the meantime, Nate sends a big, slobbery thank you kiss to Aunt Elizabeth for helping him stay warm in our freezing house.

Uykucu

That's the Turkish word for sleepy-head, and has become Nate's nickname among some of our friends. They say he sleeps too much, but then they don't understand why he's so happy and sweet most of the time. Maybe if we all slept 18 hours a day we'd be happy and sweet too.

This is how I found my two sleepy-head boys the other morning. Aren't they cute?

Game Day

After our meeting on Sunday we spent the afternoon playing a local game called Okey. Well, Stephen played while I kept everyone's tea glass full. Okey is like Rummikub, but more complicated. Nate's learning early.

Nate and Ava

This picture is about a week old now, but here's a picture of Nate and Ava having a good old time together. Well, they're not really aware of each other's presence yet, but hopefully it won't be long before they're playing together. For those of you who don't remember, Nate and Ava were born on the same day.

Bebekce

Bebekce means babytalk in Turkish.
Nate seems to be fluent already.

Half smile

It's hard to catch Nate's really good smiles, so here's a half one. You can see his dimple in it. Every Sunday our friends have a fit over his dimple wondering where in the world it came from since neither of us has dimples. Nate is growing fast and cooing more and more. We'll try to catch one of his big smiles soon.

At the park

Stephen and the other dads are out of town this week, so the girls got together yesterday with the kids/babies. It was great to get out for a bit. Here's a picture of Nate and Ava's first trip to the park. Needless to say, they were thrilled!

Milk coma

This is how Nate usually looks after he's eaten.

What are you doing to my son?

While I was out of the room on Sunday people started having a little too much fun with Nate. I found these pictures on the camera later.

Iftar

It's Ramadan here and we were invited to an Iftar meal at one of Stephen's friend's house the other night. Iftar is the meal eaten at sunset to break the fast. Many times if you're invited to a meal there's a large crowd eating together, but this time it was just the other couple, their very cute daughter Elif, and us. It was a nice, calm evening.

Elif being caught with her hand in the sugar bowl.

Elif and Nate comparing pacifiers.
Nate was using her chair, so she was a bit jealous.

They love babies here. Yea, people love babies everywhere,
but they REALLY love babies here. Nate was the center of attention.

Doctor Deniz

At our last doctor's visit before leaving Istanbul I got a picture with my doctor and Nate. She was great and I had a wonderful experience with her as my doctor. It's obvious that she loves what she does and still gets excited when she sees a baby.

Quick update

After a very long summer away, we're heading home tomorrow. We're ready to get back and see what real life with a baby will be like. It's been a long week. Stephen got sick early in the week and passed it on to Nate, so we had our first experience with a sick baby. He's doing better now and I think will be back to normal in a couple days.

To satisfy those of you who have been hounding us (Elizabeth Johnson) to put some new pictures on the blog, here they are.

Nate loves the swaddle. It keeps his normally flailing arms away from his face so he can sleep, but more importantly so we can sleep too. We think he looks like a gloworm.

Nate's first ride in his stroller and first look at the Bosphorous
(the dark blob in the background).

Finishing up at the hospital...

Apparently in Istanbul they like to deliver the baby and send you home quickly. 19 hours after Nate was born they asked for their money and sent us out the door. The care at the hospital was great actually. We've never done this thing in the States, but we think it's quite different. Our doctor was with us for most of the 15 hours before the birth and stopped in to see us a few times the next morning. A nurse will even be visiting our home during the first week. Below are some more pics from the rest of our stay in the hospital.

Interesting enough, one of the two other families that live with us in our city was in Istanbul as well to have their second child. Sheryl gave birth to Ava just as we were entering the Labor & Delivery area around 6 in the morning. Needless to say, Sarah felt a little pressure to get Nate out so they could have the same birthday.

Sheryl and Sarah with their new babies. Sheryl had Ava about an
hour after arriving to the hospital. It took Sarah about 15.
That's okay, we're not bitter. Sheryl's first one was apparently a doozy.

The proud papas. Jack has already warned Nate not to
try anything funny with his daughter.

Grammy Iles showing off her second Nathan.

Meet Nate

He's finally arrived. At 1:58 pm eastern time Nathan Moore Umut Blan joined us. These are a few pictures. Both Mom and Dad are tired, so this one will be short. Nate is either not tired or sleeps with his eyes open just like his dad. Sarah did fantastic and once her body finally began to cooperate, she pushed him right out.

In the next few days, we'll write more about our experience and our new son.

At the hospital

Sarah hardly got any sleep last night. She had contractions all day and around 5 am they began to be about 3 minutes apart. We decided it was time to go. I grabbed the bag and called a taxi.

Unfortunately, that was almost 5 hours ago and we're still waiting. Her contractions have become more irregular and she's progressing slowly. Not slow enough to send her home, but not fast enough to get too excited.

Steve & Sarah Simpson...

As I was doing my weekly blog surfing today I stumbled upon a very fun web site (thanks to our brown friend, Shane Mathew). In honor of the recent Simpsons movie Burger King has sponsored a website where you can upload a picture and see what you would look like as a character on the Simpsons. After seeing the almost exact replica of me (big eyes, no hair, though the nose could be slightly bigger - okay alot), we were not as impressed with Sarah's character. After tweeking your "cartoonself" you have the opportunity to insert yourself into backgrounds from various places in Springfield. If your a Simpsons fan, it's worth the time.

Dohh!

I was very disappointed when I found out that if I wanted to watch the new Simpsons movie I had to watch it in Turkish. All animated movies in Turkey are dubbed into Turkish because all cartoons are obviously for children.

The other night Sarah and I went on one of our last dates before our little bundle of screaming joy arrives. We walked by a cinema and decided to see what was playing. Instead of "Simpsonlar" we saw a sign that read "The Simpsons." I quickly asked a guy if it was in English or Turkish and he said they were the only cinema showing it in English in the whole country. Wooohoo!

So after a nice meal and browsing through some stores we watched the Simpsons, not Simpsonlar.

Starbucks

Even if you're a hater of Starbucks you could appreciate the location of one of its 5 gazillon stores that we went to the other day. After eating at what was one of Turkey's best efforts at Mexican food (not bad, but your Mexican friends would not be impressed) we found a Starbucks situated right on the banks of the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is the waterway that divides Istanbul and separates Europe and Asia. It was quite crowded outside on the deck, but as people left we slowly moved our way to the tables closest to the water. We enjoyed the cool evening, beautiful view, good company, and of course great coffee.

View of the boats and Asia at dusk.

Three Musketeers

Mmmmm, Three Musketeers. Oh, not the candybar. The pregnant ladies.
Sarah has enjoyed being able to share her pregnancy with close friends
who are in the same situation. Both Elizabeth and Sheryl
are experienced too.They each have very cute daughters.

Goodies

Of course Elizabeth came bearing lots of gifts for both us and for Baby Blan. Try to get past the lovely feet and ankles and onto the very cool Crocs. Sarah was very excited about this gift because they will save her back while she stands for hours cooking on concrete floors.