America Day 4

We got up and packed for the park once again.  This time the kids wore their suits as we planned on going to a splash pad, as Sherah called it,  a park - all perfectly made within a high fence.  The playground was in a bowl with places to climb, drive, and swing.  The wading pool was encircled by a large and high fence - keeping the kids locked in, and out of, reaching distance.  

The kids loved it, but I was feeling pretty lousy all morning.  We turned around to head home for launch and I was felling worse - I thought I was going to throw up.  Sure enough, halfway home I had to hit the brakes, jump out, and throw up in the grass.  (Mostly the water my sister had been pushing me to drink).

I got back to the house and laid down but my body was throbbing with aches that I hadn’t noticed before.  I suppose it was a flu bug, but the aches kept me from any relief of sleep.  I laid miserably in the bed for an hour and half while Tolga and Sherah managed feeding and changing the kids for nap time.  Even though I had breakfast hours earlier and had been laying for over an hour - I got up and threw up everything.  

We all napped and I woke up still feeling miserable.  On top of this, my sister asked if we were planning to stay the night because “if we were, Mike was going to go and stay at his parents house.”

Tolga was annoyed and said, we’ll go then.  We were going to go to Seth’s but in the end - I vetoed moving because I could hardly move.  I promised Sherah we’d leave first thing in the morning, but I just couldn’t manage it.  

It was fourth of July - Josh was going to join us for fireworks, Libby and Seth were going to too - but instead I laid in bed, nursing Tuana, getting up occasionally - but all my energy zapped.

I missed the fourth of July in America.  

American Day 3

We hung out in my sister’s backyard today.  She lives in St. Paul so she has the typical small house, small front yard, small narrow backyard that runs out to an alley where a dilapidated garage sits.  They have two Adirondack chairs in their backyard - the fad these days and now sold in plastic so they don’t rot.  Ezra has a sandpit in the backyard and some toys to dig in the pit.  It was a warm sunny day and we sat there most of the morning taking turns watching the kids, getting coffee, cleaning, or preparing food.

My brother Josh stopped by this day too.  He had made some empty promises about coming earlier, but asked to be excused from stopping by earlier because some friends were in from out of town (…um, hello?).  He looked handsome fit, and charming as usual - full of smiles, hugs, and plans to get to together - but left nonchalantly, having decided we’d have to meet another time.  That's my brother Josh - good intentions, little follow through.

Right after naps we packed up and headed out to Seth’s.  It would be the first time for us to see my parents since coming by plane on Thursday.  My pops was slow moving and wobbly - using a cane to steady himself.  My sister-in-law, Libby, had created a huge spread to feed the family and friends.  My mother had probably made a hundred trips to Cub Foods for the event - helping Libby set up.  My aunt Jackie had come to celebrate after having invited herself this past Friday.  The whole family was together -  nieces, nephews, brothers, sister, in-laws, my high school friend-adopted-family member - we made 25 in total at my brothers.  I guess it was a lot of people, but to me it felt just right.  

These are the sweetest times.

America Day 2

It’s only day 2, and I’m not sure how long we can keep this up.

This morning Tomris was up at 4am, but I convinced her to lay in bed until five - when Tuana woke up then I got a big cup of coffee and sat in the downstairs den with them.  Tomris played, while Tuana looked and smiled around.

Ezra woke up early too and I brought him downstairs to play and eventually Teoman woke up too.  Pretty soon they were all hungry and NO ONE in the house was getting up - so I gave Cheerios to Tomris, oatmeal to Teoman, fruit to Ezra, and started frying up some bacon, eggs, and toast.  I fed the kids bacon as it was coming off the pan, scramble half the eggs and fried the other half as well as the toast in the bacon grease.  Disgusting, I know, but we’ve been living on a bacon shortage here - so I figured it was okay.  

My sister just picked at her son’s plate, Mike didn’t come down until much later but ate a helping as well.  At breakfast we’d finished the milk, eggs, bacon, and coffee and I felt like I was on ration cards because it didn’t seem like we were getting anything else out of that fridge.  

My sister made some peanut butter sandwiches and small snacks for the kids - but I wasn’t sure what her plan was for the adults - actually, she said we can snack on the kids foods but I was already making second plans because peanut butter squares were not going to cut it for me.  

We headed out to Como Zoo - Tolga and I had actually planned on going to the big Minnesota State zoo, but Como was free and close - so with our two young families, it seemed more practical.  

But it wasn’t.  The zoo was packed.  The whole park seemed packed because the zoo is just a small part of “Como Park” where there are biking paths, ball fields, a lake, golf course, picnic and playgrounds - and so festivals and weekend picnickers, sporting events, and other miscellaneous activities had already filled the corners of the park and it was only 10:30am.  We parked and made our way pass a small amusement park - paid the “suggested donation” to get in, but we never made it too far into the zoo for a few reasons.

1. We stopped to stare every few minutes and the most common of creatures (i.e. a chipmunk running across the path).
2. Toddlers have many and various needs all the time.  
3. We didn’t have a map, my sister insisted she knew where the polar bears were and they were NOT by the bison (they were by the bison, we found out later - after she left and we could pause and look at a map).
4. My sister’s children are on a TIGHT schedule.  I hadn’t realized how obsessive she was about their schedule even though the first night we arrived she had mentioned about a hundred times that “Ezra was sooooo tired” and “it’s way past his bedtime”.  Well the last 30-40 minutes at the zoo was spent following Sherah who kept saying  “we have to go” “let’s make our way back” “I’m going to split you and mom up because we’ll never make it to the polar bears.” (We didn’t make it).  We circled back to the entrance and Sherah and family went home while my mom stayed with us to have lunch at the cafe.  

Actually, first my mom wanted to go eat at W.E. Frost - or some other extravagant place - she was excited to go somewhere fancy with us, drink wine and relax.  But her excitement she’ll easily put to the side as while I wasn’t as obsessive about a schedule - the hour and a half it would take to find the place and order was discouraging me and it was already past twelve.  

We got home just before 2pm and they were sleeping hard in the car.

However, they all woke up and hit the ground running when they realized we were back at Auntie Sherah's house.

At night we went to Minneahaha park - ate at the Sea Salt Cafe and listed to some ho-dunk band.  Teoman, Tomris and Ezra danced to the 5-man band of a stand-up double bass, a banjo, violin, guitar and saw.  (The man was drawing a bow across the saw to get an obnoxious sound).  The female guitarist occasionally put hers down and brought out a platform to to dance.  

The kids danced right along with their poor overtired legs.

America Day 1

Flying to America jet lag plays out like this:

Very early mornings.  Slightly crabby children and adults.  Hard to wake from naptimes.

We were up at 4am, which I was surprised at because we had such little sleep on the plane - but Tomris was up first, then Teoman and they were busy playing away with all the new toys (that is, their cousins toys).  I went up and prepared coffee and some cereal around 6 and Ezra heard me.  Ezra is 6 weeks younger than Tomris and was calling his mama, but he smiled pretty big when I came in and cuddled with me in the chair - I offered that he come down stairs and play with us to which he agreed readily.  

My sister Sherah has two kids - Isaac who just turned one, and Ezra, who will be three in August.  Her home is in a nice neighborhood of St. Paul.   It's a a cottage - a main floor with two bedrooms, a half upstairs with their bedroom and shower, and a finished basement with a second living space, bedroom, full bathroom, and laundry room.  

Small in American standards I suppose - but pretty huge to me.  

Sherah works for US Bank doing bank stuff, and her husband Mike works for an Insurance company doing insurance stuff.  They both have management positions - but that’s about all I understand no matter how many times they try to explain it to me.  

We had to get out of the house in the morning according to my sister because Mike had meetings on the phone between 8-9am.  According to Mike - we were welcome to stay.  For us it didn’t matter as I knew we’d be up early anyhow so we headed to a donut shop a block away.  The bakery helpers were not Minnesota nice as they waited while we all goggled at the donut choices.  Nor did they understand my request.  I’m forgetting English words and my first thoughts are in Turkish and I find myself thinking how do I say that in English?  

We walked to the park that my sister said was a block away.  But it turned out to be six.  These are things I know about my sister and she hates for me to say out loud - so in order to avoid a fight, I don’t.  She says,

“It’s just a block away”.

Meaning: plan as usual - bring stroller, snacks, water, blanket.

Sherah insisted I didn’t need the stroller, offered her baby carrier - but I claimed my shoulders couldn’t take it so she offered to carry her.

Go for it.,,

In the end we had Isaac on the lower level, Tomris on the top, and Tuana in Shereh’s pouch.  We stopped at the bakery, went to the gas station to put air in the tires, and headed to the park - this one was labeled “Treasure Island” - a community funded park that was all wood and built with lots of paths and simple stairs for kids to run around and get lost in.  

We also went to Sherah’s in-laws for a pool party.  They live in Stillwater, our home town, which was about a half hour drive away if you go fast.  (“Not far” according to Sherah - but quite far in comparison to what my kids are used to).  Mike’s parents are good people with big hearts like her husband - and Tolga and I had met them on several occassions.  We had swimsuits for the kids and the swam, ate pizza, and cake.  

My parents came, as well as my oldest brother Seth and his wife and kids.  (My other two brothers are not in town right now).  My Aunt Jackie (my mother’s sister) and her husband came as well - Jackie is quite faithful in showing up at all family events - and quite miffed if we don’t tell her immediately  about family events.  i.e. When my father was in the hospital - I messaged her the same day and she was angry that “nobody told her.”  When she was leaving, Seth mentioned the family barbecue was being moved to Sunday, and Jackie overhearing piped in with a suspicious,

“What family barbeque?”  

My uncle Don has ALS and  has recently been confined to an automated wheelchair.  He uses a walker to move from chair to chair, but with some difficulty.  He loves talking about fishing and is quick to make jokes about his immobility,

“Let me just jump right up there,” when it was suggested we move to the table on the deck.