taking normal for granted

I came home early today and Teoman was still napping.  That has been his routine these days .... He naps late and sleeps even later.  He's very hard to wake up and sometimes I will pick him up out of the bed and carry him somewhere different just to snap him out of it.  He fights falling asleep, and fights waking up.   But there are a few triggers that will pop his eyes open wide, and one of them is,

"Wake up Teoman, we are going to Mina's."

Mina is just over two weeks younger then Teoman.  Her mom and I worked together for a year, and have over the years spent more and more time together as we have found more and more in common.  My friend has three girls, she is from Utah, and her husband is Turkish.  She has become a lot of things for me, someone I can compare with - but not in a competitive way - more like a "is this normal?" kind of way.  I love living in Turkey, but that cultural connection is something I took for granted in the past, but not any longer.  Our normals are similar.  We help ourselves to get a drink, sweatpants are okay, complaining about in-laws even though the in-laws are perfectly good people - its all okay.  Because, we get each other.  We are living similar experiences.  Our kids are living similar experiences too - having an American mother and Turkish father.  Visiting America, speaking English together, going to Turkish schools - learning to negotiate between the two cultures that make them unique.

We "play" quite frequently - almost once a week.  My friend bought a house in the past year very near to where we live.  Our husbands both travel a lot, and when they are away, we visit even more.  Teoman and Mina are best buds now, and equally excited to see each other.  They play together loudly and enthusiastically with Tomris trailing behind them or finding new toys to keep herself busy.  We went over there today because Mina got a new puppy.   Tolga keeps asking our kids if they want a puppy (which I don't), and the kids keep telling him no.  But they were excited to see Mina's puppy.  In the car ride over there, Teoman told Tomris in Turkish,
"Tomris, if you get afraid of the puppy, you can come to me, okay?"
"Okay, if I'm afraid, I'll go to you," she answered.
Teoman and Tomris fight a lot - probably a normal amount, but they also take care of each other, and I never see this as normal - and it melts my heart when they share things important, or protect each other, or scold the other, and so on.  At Mina's, Teoman tried on some rollerblades and Tomris was right there saying, in Turkish again,
"Do you want me to help you?"

Tomris told me, "I'm relaxing."

Teoman was wearing rollerblades because the dog didn't hold their

Tomris petting "Bella" - Zeynep's new dog

interest for long.  Teoman ran  around the room while the puppy chased him.  Tomris watched from a distance, and eventually touched the puppy with me near by - but they were soon downstairs playing  "doctor" and "monster" and "rockets" and so forth.  It sure is fun to see them all play together.  The kids switch back and forth - but mostly when they are together they speak English - which I'm really glad they have this chance too - for I've found I've even taken my own language for granted.