Baki turned 7 today. It is utterly redundant to make mention of how the years have flown by, and how that little baby I once held is now running around, reading, wearing glasses, writing in cursive, and doing all sorts of other things that I never imagined possible in those first early months, or even years. And yet it is all so true.

As usual, we went up to Istanbul (last weekend) for his birthday party, so that my mother in law and his aunties could see him. This is the last year that we will be doing this, though, as Baki has informed me that he would like to have birthday parties here in Antalya with his school friends from now on. Fair enough — we can go up for Kaya’s birthday next year.

The weather was beautiful while we were in Istanbul, and I managed to avoid getting caught in any of the city’s epic traffic jams, so it was a good trip. We even managed to fit in a morning at the park, where Kaya had his first encounter with a sand box — love at first sight, I’d say.

Then it was back to Antalya and the school week began. This morning was presents from Grandma and my cousins, and Baki was off to school, seven years old for real. We invited his friend Leyla over after school to play a bit and have some birthday cake with us. My mom had sent re-igniting candles, so the kids had a great time trying to get them to go out. Baki even tried using his new kazoo from my cousin Pamela. In the end, a glass of water came to the rescue.

As for me, I’m leaving the dishes for tomorrow after Baki gets off to school and heading to the tub.