Giggles

Sarah's cousin Jon won the award for Nate's funniest relative.

Iles Christmas

Here are a few pictures from the Iles family Christmas. We skipped the gift-giving this year and spent the time relaxing together.

With Aunt Liza

Nate met his Uncle Nathan for the first time.
Cousin Sam will be here in just a few weeks!

Aunt Liza loves baby feet!

Blan Christmas

A few pictures from the Blan family Christmas:

Jolly old St. Nicholas . . .

Cameron loves to fix Aunt Sarah's hair. It was much less painful
this time than it was 2 years ago

Nate loves his Bengi bear. He's a fan already! Thanks Uncle Tim.

Camo couldn't get enough of baby Nate!

Neither could Aunt Annie
(Special prize for the best answer to "What is Nate thinking in this picture?")

Three generations:
Stephen's cousins Chase and Ryan, Granddad Spaulding,
Tim, Stephen, Camo, Kate, and Nate

More pics

Nate has been enjoying his swing at Grammy's house and has learned how to make the bear and seal make noise.

Evidently Nate ate too much and had to unbutton his pants.

Made in Turkey

Hopefully he's better quality than most things made in Turkey.

Grammy and Nate Reunited

Grammy was there for Nate's birth, but wouldn't have recognized him in a baby line-up. It was a sweet reunion.

Meet Nate

Nanna and Granddad made a special trip up to Northern KY first thing on Tuesday morning to meet their grandson for the first time. He was just as excited to see them.

Coming to America

After a very smooth journey, and only one flight delay in New York, we arrived in America late Monday night. Of course we had to make a stop at Starbucks to welcome ourselves back home. Home sweet home, latte sweet latte!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving from the Blans! Here are a few pictures from our day.

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of three.

Did somebody say turkey?

Nate got a little bored with the game.

Klaire patiently waiting for us to join her at the table.

Lesson #1 in parenting -
When the child is quiet for too long, it means trouble.
While we were preoccupied with our game, Klaire snuck into the kitchen
and chowed down on a tomato. Sadly, her clothes got more of it than she did.

Asleep

I was busy all morning cooking for our gathering tomorrow. When I left Nate to start cooking he was propped up on the floor pillow chatting away. I got so wrapped up in cooking that I forgot about him. About 30 minutes later I realized he was quiet, so I went to check on him. This is how I found him - on the floor, sound asleep, with his pacifier at his side.

Mad Nate

Sometimes when I put Nate in his swing I put a blanket behind him so he's more cozy. The other day both Stephen and I were out of the room and we heard Nate fussing. We figured it was his normal fussiness, so we didn't go to see what was wrong. When Stephen finally went in, this is how he found Nate. There was a reason he was fussy. Like any good dad, instead of helping him out and fixing the blanket, Stephen took pictures!

Mad Nate

Angry Nate

Snow on the Mountains Pictures

Here are some pictures to go with the last post. You can see the snow on the mountains in the background. There's more now than there was a few days ago! I've also added a couple other pictures that show the view from our apartment windows.

The big mound in the background of this picture is a 2800 year old castle.

Snow on the Mountains

The impending doom of winter is upon us. Last week snow appeared on the mountaintops that surround our city, and we'll dreadfully watch it make its way down the mountain until it reaches us. The word on the street is that it's going to snow tonight. It's going to be a long winter!

Happy Halloween

There's no Halloween here, but since Nate's Aunt Annie sent such a cute "My First Halloween" outfit, we decided it was time for a family photo.

Bobble-head

Nate is doing so well holding his head up now. As you can see in the picture, I can hold onto his arms and he'll do the rest. No more bobble-head Nate.

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.