Kolay Gelsin

The Turkish expression kolay gelsin goes over well with the Turks. It's sort of like telling an actor to break a leg. You are telling them to have a good day at work; hoping that it comes easy for them. The literal translation is easy come but you only say it when someone is in the course of their work. I tried saying it to Hatice as she was leaving our house one day and she quickly corrected me. Kolay gelsin is used when work is still in progress -- not when it is completed.

(It is also used a lot when you tell someone you will have three kids three and under. They say it to me in that case -- as if to say I am crazy. The Turks rarely have more than two children and those two kids are usually spaced five or so years apart. So I am quite abnormal to them.)

It's been many months since the boys have heard much Turkish. While I continued practicing it in Germany (and decided not to learn any German so as to avoid confusion), the boys only got some number and color practice. No real day-to-day immersion.

But with our return to Turkey came a return to Turkish. Hatice is here every Tuesday (and other days that she stops by to see us). Our gardener is always out and about. The baggers at the grocery store. Our waiters at "The Club". That sort of thing. On Thursday I took Patty to the local market in "The Alley." On Saturday our family showed Yamil and Patty the M1 Mall and on Sunday the big market by the river. (JB also tried to take them to see Harry Potter on Sunday, only to discover that it wasn't in English with Turkish subtitles as he had been lead to believe. Big bummer.)

And so hearing Turkish and practicing Turkish has returned. On one of our outings, I mentioned kolay gelsin to the security guard as we exited Base, and Elijah thought this was hilarious. He repeated the phrase nearly perfectly and has since taken to using it with any Turkish person he meets. Since the Turks love children and since the Turks love when people attempt their language, they have really loved Elijah jumping on the kolay gelsin bandwagon. Isaac has even halfway jumped on it. It's making them very popular when out and about.

This is just one small example of the type of things that make me smile lately. I am still a bit hormonal post-pregnancy. A bit nostalgic. I cry easier. I'm a bit more melancholy. And my boys can just light me up inside and out. Last night at church, they did a bit of VBS flashing back. They sang some songs that the kids had been singing all week and showed a slide show. Isaac was glowing! He was totally trying to sing the songs and doing the motions. Elijah clapped and said that he saw Hatice in the slide show. (He didn't.) Anytime he heard the name Jesus he turned to me and said, "They said Jesus." He gave baby Abigail a kiss (and smooshed her face accidentally with his hand.)

We also said good bye to the nursery last night (at least until Abigail is old enough to join in.) Elijah moved into Isaac's class -- something we were planning on doing after we returned from Germany. As I walked them down the hallway for the start of their class, Isaac wrapped his arm around Elijah's shoulder and said, "You're going to go to the big boy class with me. Okay buddy?" We then walked into the classroom. I expected one of them to cry or not want to go in, but both of their faces lit up when they saw play dough at every seat, and Elijah climbed up on a chair next to Isaac as if he had been doing this his whole life.

Everyone has told me to "enjoy the moment." They reminded me that these days would pass by with incredibly quickness. Oh how right they are and were. My boys are growing up before my eyes, and in the next year, Abigail will change so incredibly much. Most likely by this time next year, she'll be walking and saying words.

This job I have, kolay gelsin to me I say! Despite the fact that I had to pause in typing this to respond (and attend to) Isaac's, "Mommy, I just did pupe-eee! Do you want to see my puup-ee?", I really don't want my kids to grow up.