The whole tooth and nothing but the tooth

Allow me to let you all back into the loop. Meltem and I have been surprisingly busy given that the semester has been over for a couple of weeks now; I, for one, have been busy with the buildup to the January SAT (which is this Saturday) and writing/grading final exams. Ozan, of course, has been busy with being the cutest little guy in the world. His teeth are slowly but surely poking through; it looks like his two front teeth will have an adorable little gap between them (can't wait to pay for those adorable little braces later on!). The pain of teething seems to have stopped bothering him for the nonce, because he is a bundle of happy energy almost all the time he is awake these days.

Which will make it all the harder to leave him! I'm heading home for a visit to the States this Saturday, with sojourns in Connecticut and North Carolina (to meet my nephew Mitch). I haven't left Turkey in two years, so I'm really ready for this. Plus I've been working very hard, so it will be a well-deserved vacation. Oh yeah, and it will nice to see people. Much to my discomfiture, though, I got sick today. I was afraid it was a bug passed on by one of my students – who just got over a virus so bad he went to the hospital twice for IV! But I spent an uncomfortable afternoon in bed and seem to be over it. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. Nothing like a trans-Atlantic flight with a rotten fever...

Thar she blows

Sighted: Ozan's second tooth! He's been pretty unhappy for a few days now, and it reached a peak this morning; but when he awoke from his morning nap we spotted the top ridge of a second tooth breaking through the gums right next to his first one (i.e. lower jaw center). There are also distinctive white patches on his gums where other ones are pushing through. So Ozan should be giving us a nice toothy grin in short order.

Man at work

Ozan has reached a stage where he sets little tasks for himself. These can be as simple as "throw my toy off the high chair and watch Mom or Dad pick it up," or relatively more complicated ones like repeatedly putting his block on a higher shelf than he can reach and waiting for Mom or Dad to give it back.



Here, Dr. Ozan does his "rounds."



Finally, our boy is absolutely obsessed with computers; I don't know if it's the colorfully glowing screen or what, but he just has to come up and "use" it. I let him get too friendly with my Mac and he pried the space bar off (since repaired!). Here you can see him getting all worked up over my online teaching schedule.

Poof!

Boy, am I glad we caught this moment on camera. Indulging my silly side has never been so satisfying!