Blue Mosque

Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from a lot of the historic sites in old town. So, on our second day in Istanbul we walked over to the Blue Mosque. This was built in 1603-1617 by Sultan Ahmet I. It was named the blue mosque because of the blue tiles on the interior. Here are some pics:

These spigots are located along the base of the exterior of the mosque. Muslims (mostly men) come here to wash their heads, hands, and feet before entering the mosque for prayer.

Here are a few pictures of the interior. There is blue tile inside, but the name of the mosque is still a little deceiving.

Ian loves Turkey...and Turkey loves Ian

On our flight to Turkey, 2 Turkish women took an interest in Ian while we were waiting to board. It was great - they even offered to take Ian back to their seats for a while during the flight. Here's a pic of Ian with his new friends:

We thought we were just lucky on the flight, but it turns out that those women were not out of the ordinary. People in Turkey LOVE Ian. Yes, Ian gets admirers in Japan, but it's nothing like Turkey. Turks love all babies in general. Men, women, young, old...they all love babies. They just can't resist reaching over to pinch, kiss, and squeeze babies to pieces.

A couple shopkeepers gave Ian a wrapped chocolate bar to play with. (which Ryan and I ended up eating later)

On a boat ride these teenagers came over and wanted to pick up Ian. He actually wasn't as excited about them as they were in him. We're hoping that feeling continues in his teen years...

In addition to all of the Turkish love, Ian also had Rani and Erika's attention as well. Does life get any better than this?

Peek-a-boo!

Ian loves playing peek-a-boo right now. He'll play it with pretty much anything he can find...including his own socks. That's right, socks. The sock barely covers his eyes, but that's enough for him. He'll sit by patiently covering his eyes until you notice he wants you to find him.

Here he's playing with a book. (which, by the way, was an excellent book recommendation from my dad)

Where's Ian?

There he is!

In this picture you can see his bottom tooth sticking out.

Birthday Boy

I meant to post this earlier, but it will take forever for us to edit and attach a video. So, for now you'll have to settle for pictures.

It's still hard to believe that Ian turned 1! We celebrated his birthday a little early so my parents could celebrate with Ian. Here are pictures of Ian eating his cupcake.

First bite:

Pondering on the goodness of chocolate:

Does life get any better than chocolate cupcakes?

On Ian's actual birthday he got to open a few presents. We had opened most of his gifts already (don't tell Ian), but thankfully we still had a few wrapped gifts from Aunt Britta and Uncle Dave. Although he definitely enjoyed the wrapping paper, he also was excited about the actual gifts as well.

Ian is chaneling his Great-Grandpa Wally's present opening skills:

Grandparents

Ian has had such a fun time with his grandparents over the past month. I thought I'd post some of my favorite pictures:

Geisha

During our time in Kyoto we managed to spot some Geisha. Most of them were likely Maiko, which is an apprentice geisha. However, it's also a little tricky because tourists can pay to get dressed up like Maiko. Usually you know you've spotted a real maiko when you see a photographer with them (to pose for promotional pictures), but you can also tell by the quality of the hair/make-up.

We joked with my parents that my mom and I should have paid to get dressed up like Maiko. I'm sure the Japanese would never guess that our 5'10 and 6'0 frames were not actual maikos!

Boy's Day

May 5th is Boy's day in Japan. While it's not as fun as Cinco de Mayo (in other words, no alcohol involved), they still do a good job of decorating/celebrating here. Homes that have boys hang carp windsocks, which are called koinobori. They're also displayed in public places as well. Here are some koinobori in Kyoto:

A friend of ours brought over a mini-version for Ian. He got to play with it for a while and then we also displayed it for the 5th.

Note the huge camper in the background. I don't know how they do it, but our neighbors park it in the most incredibly tight space I've ever seen. ...and they do it on average 3-4x/week. I hope at some point I'll be able to watch it in action.