Sunday

I had a great time this morning listening to E talk to his family online. My Turkish is terrible, but I could understand a few things:

• E loves American technology. He showed all the baby equipment my awesome sister and sister-in-law have loaned us and especially marveled over the baby swing. He talked about iPhones, iPads, and flat screen TVs. I think he was trying to make his brothers jealous

• E is definitely struggling with how small our city is. He doesn’t like that no one walks on the street and everyone has to drive everywhere. I can see his point, so I imagine next year we might move somewhere bigger—Chicago, New York, DC? (He also marvels at how many women here are pregnant, and I marvel with him.)
  

• The cats jumped on his lap while he was talking. While scratching them and petting them, E explained to his family that he really doesn’t love cats.

• E and his family love to talk about my niece Lily. They think she is the greatest, cutest little button ever.
• For some reason, E and his family tried to figure out when he was born. His mother vaguely remembers giving birth to his older brother during the Kurban Bayram and giving birth to E almost exactly one year later. However, her memories kept changing during the conversation. Maybe it was during the Ramazan Bayram instead? Ultimately, after checking the dates of the holidays, we realized that it’s entirely possible that E and his older brother are actually a year older than they always thought. Sigh. Poor guys.

This afternoon, E and I drove up the canyon to check out the fall leaves. We ended up at Sundance and took the ski lift up the mountain. We had a great time looking at the foliage even though I felt a bit nervous riding so high and unprotected. Here are a few shots. Just ignore how terrible my pregnant skin is.