My hope is that we pass on the importance of family, education, and helping others.  We will give you the ideal situation even though ours is not picture perfect.  My hope is that you will exceed my expectations and have a better life.  Ours has filled with personal struggles and financial challenges.

As you know we have a small family.  Our immediate family includes your uncle, aunt, and cousin.  Everyone else is out of the country, including grandpa and your mom’s family.  Cherish what you have, respect your elders, and always watch out for each other.   We are all there are at the moment.

My hope is that you go all with way with your education.  You will need to show that you can complete the higher standards of education so you can carry those skills, knowledge, and commitment in the working world.  You will have to be better than average.  Average will not get you noticed and average will not pay you what you are worth.  Everything costs money.  We have very little of it.  You will need to make your own.

My hope is that you will not be selfish with you time and talents.  Go out and help someone, fight for a cause, do what is right!  Do not get caught up with yourself that you forget others.  Our family and our cultures are known for being hospitable, friendly, and caring.  Helping others is good for the soul.  We believe in karma, don’t let it hit you because you were too busy and self absorbed.

My hope is that you will exceed in something that you love doing.  You can also be the jack of all trades or a master of a few.  What ever you choose to do in your life, make sure you are happy.  Making money is important, but you should be happy in what you are doing.  Find purpose in everything you do.  The money will follow.

By the time you read and understand this I will be that much older.  I may forget to tell you these things so I hope you come back and read all the lessons I/we have left behind.

We want the best for you.  Just because we are older doesn’t mean we know less than you do.  We have gone through many life lessons that you still have not learned.  My hope is that you learn from our mistakes so you can be a better person.

Never be afraid to speak your mind.  We prefer honesty even if it hurts.  The truth often hurts.  We’re here to listen and guide you.  You are not alone.

The park has two dog parks, several baseball fields, a huge open area for several teams of soccer, a water park, and of course a kids playground.  This week was Justice and Jasmine’s first experience at the park.  We weren’t sure how they were going to like it or if they were even going to fit in the baby swings.  Turns out they liked it!

Here they are in their first swing!

Justice smiled and laughed especially when I pushed him higher and harder.  Jasmine hung on for dear life, but in a calm way lol.  We also put them on the kids slide, but there were not as amused.

We hope the weather continues to cooperate.  I think it’s just what they need to keep from going stir crazy at home.  They are 7 months and a week old this week.

The last week was very difficult.  They cried a lot and at the same time.  Ebru can’t walk pass them without one or both of them crying for attention.  We are just so frustrated that they haven’t improved in this area.  No DVD, toy, and juggle act can keep their attention for too long.

We just hope these walks to the parks are helping and giving them a change of scenery.  We’re running out of places to go and floor space in our home for new toys.

It works just like Facebook. All you need to do is sign up, login, and you’re done! There are no catches. It’s Free!

Activity Page

Once you’ve registered, edit your profile with details you want to share. By default, your profile uses your Gravatar avatar assuming you registered with your Gravatar email address. To get a global avatar, you can get one free at Gravatars. Otherwise, you can just upload a new avatar on the Edit Profile page.

At that point, you’re ready to get started. Just go to the Activity Page and start sharing what’s on your mind.

You can search for friends on the Directory Page. There’s not much there now, but with your help we could make this site grow! It will be a sure sign of growth when you start getting Friend Requests and start building your base of Friend’s Pages.

When you come back to the site just hover your mouse of the ‘Mingle’ link to see the list of available pages, including the login page.

Code of Conduct – Just keep it clean since this is a family site. Any inappropriate posts will be deleted by the administrator.

Enjoy!

I guess we will never win this battle.  We can never have a happy medium.  If we ask for one thing, it’s always at extremes.  We want them to be talking, but not too loud.  We want them to eat solid food, but not for them to be messy and gassy.  We want them to sit up, but not while we are trying to put them to sleep, etc.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Going back to Jasmine.  It’s been entertaining.  We just have to wonder what she’s thinking.  At 7 months she’s being showing very good development.  This morning she woke up yapping away.  It’s a great way to wake up.  I only wish I could understand what she’s saying lol.  Maybe you could decipher her babble.

Jasmine has also been quite the drinker.  Not in an alcoholic sense.  Somehow she loves drinking water out of a regular glass.  She can do this quite well, with our help.  Maybe it soothes her teething or maybe she’s just plain thirsty.  Justice doesn’t drink out of the glass or tumbler too well.  He likes to gurgle the water, then ends up going down the wrong tube.  Boys!

Hopefully this coming month they will show more improvements.  I really hope they show it in the sleeping department.  This continues to be a struggle for us.  We just don’t get why they can’t just fall asleep on their own.  We make their environment as comfortable as can be and yet they need to be cradled, rocked, and soothed to sleep.  For me, all I need is a flat surface and I’m out!  Go figure!

New Theme

For the last couple of weeks I’ve obsessed with my site themes.  I must have tried over a dozen of themes.  I’ve had dark themes, light themes, two-column, three-column themes and more.  You name it, I’ve had it.  This time I found the right one!

I know I’m saying that now, but this time it’s for sure lol.  No more changing, no more crazy themes.  I’m sticking to this magazine style layout forever more haha.  Not because it’s cool looking, but because it is a premium theme.  I didn’t want to go this route, but I couldn’t resist.

Now that I have found my dream theme, I could get back to more important things like taking care of Justice and Jasmine lol.

Yesterday was a hard day for Ebru.  Both were fussy and hard to manage.  When they are like this, it makes for a long and tiring day.

Next week they will be 7 months old.  Not much has changed as far as their sleeping habits.  Justice still wakes up 3-4 times a night and Jasmine hardly sleeps at all day or night.  Not sure what we’re doing wrong.

The new developments this week are Jasmine’s talking sessions and Justice’s new awareness.  Justice now realizes when he is left alone or when I leave the house for work.  I guess he is more attached to us than we originally thought/hoped for.  I don’t blame him cause I remember crying my head off every time my mom left for work.  I was mama’s boy.

We’re still looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.  For now we still foresee dark days ahead with no rest in sight.  God, if you’re listening . . .

For now I think it’s great!  I’m sure it’s not so great when we are trying to put Justice to sleep, but we are sure happy with her progress.

Take a look at this YouTube video and tell me what you think.  Is she going to be a talker or what?!

Now we have both of them rambling on everyday.  Oh geez.  Help us!

Here are some pictures of them while we were waiting for mommy at the post office.

Jasmine is getting there.  Yesterday she started to babble just like Justice did right before he said, ‘Dada!’.  She’s not far behind.  Come on Jasmine you can do it!

Both times Justice spoke he was on his jumper.  He is a really motivated boy lol.  He is ready to talk, crawl, and walk at least mentally and emotionally.

When they are not playing home, they are sitting comfortably in their new stroller.  Here they are Petsmart waiting for Minik and Candy.

Last Christmas we sent my dad a portable DVD player and a movie of Justice and Jasmine’s first 5 Months.  He loved it and we plan to send him more DVDs.  Since then dad has called every weekend.  Here’s a small clip of dad talking to me with Justice and Jasmine listening in the background.

We hope that someday they will get to meet dad, but it’s not too hopeful.  Dad is no longer a spring chicken and Justice and Jasmine are just too young to travel.  We’ll have to see how things are a year or so from now.  For now at least they will know what dad sounds like.

Here’s is what he looked like when he had hair lol.  Even I don’t remember him looking like this lol.  Here’s me and Justice for comparison.  I don’t think we look alike, at least not in these pictures.

Dad

Me

Justice

Ebru calls her family every couple of weeks and they get to hear Justice and Jasmine playing/crying in the background.  We’ll be sending them some DVDs too.  Ebru’s brother, Bahadir sent them these cool jumper toys the shape of cars.  We finally got them last month.  We thought they were lost in the mail.

It would be really cool of both our families had a computer and web cam.  Then they could see Justice and Jasmine in real time.  Instead we have to print out pictures and send them through the mail the old-fashion way.

Here they are now at 6 1/2 months young.

How about Ebru and Jasmine, do you think they look alike?

Ebru

Jasmine

We were excited to be there when he said his first words.   Hopefully his next words will be ‘Mama!’.

It’s too bad his night time naps haven’t turned into actual sleep, but that’s another story.  As it turns out the baby food that we have been giving him has been causing gas (carrots and sweet potato).  Last night I didn’t give him any solid food, just his formula.  This helped somewhat.

Yesterday they both had their 6 month check ups and shots including flu and H1N1.  The person who injected Justice poked him so freakin hard that blood shot out onto my pants!  WTH!

Tonight is not going to be fun.  Justice got another cold.  So his cold, plus the pain from the shots, and slight fever is going to result in another restless night.  God help us!  The only good thing about his condition is that he sleeps right away even though he gets up often (knock on wood).

Jasmine is probably getting Justice’s cold too.  There’s almost no way to buffer her from Justice’s germs.  They share toys and touch the same objects.  They put their hands in their mouths and poke each other in the eyes and noses LOL.

Not sure if either of them will say much today.  The cold wipes them out especially Jasmine.

Here they are after their shots.