January 2013 – onvural.net – melih

Amelia says, “I love you”

This post is really meant to act as a historical marker.

Amelia has heard, “I love you” since the day she was born. I would like to think that all children do, but I know better than that. When she was about three months old, you’d say, “Amelia. I love you!” and she would squeal in delight. Since she’s been talking both Micky and I have tried to get her to say I love you back at us, and…

today it finally happened 🙂

I said to her, “Amelia, say I love you to daddy”, and she said, “I love you”, and then immediately was quite proud of herself. She had a big smile on her face, and I immediately bear hugged and kissie monstered her to pieces.

And that’s why it’s all worth it.

Life Updates, Uncategorized 3

Back in the grind

This real world thing is tough!

It’s really amazing how quickly we got used to not having a schedule, demands on our time (outside the babies), and responsibility. But we’re back, and it’s full steam ahead.

We’ve run the numbers (and boy are they big numbers), and realized that we’re going to have to rent for one more year. That’s quite tough for me as I’m really looking forward to a permanent place. I’m very much over renting from folks. But, without a good idea of how much school is going to cost, and how much we can really afford, it would be really foolhardy to just jump at the first thing on our radar. Patience and common sense prevails.

Amelia is doing really well. She’s started art lessons, a weekly indoor gym class, continues music and swimming, and is also massively in love with running around and being chased. I wonder when I’ll ever be able to keep up with her energy most times.

Luka is growing bigger and bigger. At their last check up we learned that he’s only a few inches shorter, and a few pounds lighter than his sister. Poor Amelia. When Luka gets bigger, I’m sure he’ll get his revenge. I’m just really excited that they’re both tall. Luka is trying to stand up now with no interest in crawling. Hates being on his stomach, but loves being up on his feet. He’s quite strong too in the legs. It all happens way too quickly.

Played soccer again for the first time in a long time. My knee feels good. My play didn’t suck. It’s the little things these days 🙂

I’ve also become a fitness nut. I got a FitBit from my mom as a Christmas present, and I’ve hooked it up with MyFitnessPal, and when we get the scale back I’ll hook it up with my Withings, and I’ll have this epic digital health tracking system going. Calorie conscious decisions are going to help me get down to 175 by May. Gotta look good in those bathing suits now!

That’s all for tonight then. Until the next one, keep smiling.

Amelia's Piano, Uncategorized 1

Introducing Amelia’s Piano

For her 2nd birthday, I’m going to build Amelia a digital piano. It will highlight the keys as it plays songs, and then let her play it back by highlighting the next note, and waiting for her to hit it. I’m probably more excited about building it then she will be receiving it, but so it goes at this age 🙂

I’ll be building it using a bunch of fun technologies that I haven’t had a chance to play with yet. The microprocessor will be an Arduino. I’m really excited to play with the Arduino as the breadboard was my favorite part of undergrad EE. If you don’t know much about Arduino, then I’d check out this TED talk from the guy who I think is the founder of the project.

To make the actual piano, I’ll be using a 3D printer. I’ve been scouring the web for open source CAD software, and hopefully (the goal for this week) I’ll have the piano laid out this week. Then, I’m going to have to find a 3D printing company to rent some time and/or order the parts. I’m thinking a baby grand that hides the Arduino, and has 2 octaves worth of keys surrounding middle-C, but we’ll see 🙂

I want to document as I build it so that one day Amelia can see how it was all done, and maybe someone else will pick it up, and build their own. And hopefully you guys will enjoy seeing it go along the way.

Life Updates, Uncategorized 2

And we’re back!

So I’ve decided to be much more vigorous in writing on my blog mainly because it’s a channel for many things, a practice pad for many more, and a chance to dump my thoughts out of my head and onto the proverbial pad. As a result, Sunday’s will become life update days, Monday’s will be Amelia’s Piano update days, and then I’ll figure out the rest as it comes.

We’re back in San Francisco!

We’re living in Noe Valley, which is an amazing little spot in San Francisco. We walk to Whole Foods, one of a million coffee shops, restaurants, or bars, two different parks, a library, and the highway is just minutes away. It’s ideal. This is where we’ve decided to start to look for housing, and I think Micky and I are both really excited about it.

It has taken from Tuesday to Saturday for the kids to adjust to the jet lag. I have to give both of them massive credit as I think they did a wonderful job. It helped that we’re such awesome parents, but no need to rag on myself :-p

(Oh, I just thought that Wednesday should be Weight Update Wednesday… good one)

Work is going well, and opportunities are definitely there to be grabbed. Simultaneously, my personal project, Amplifize.com, has a strong community, and is a really great place to hang out if you like talking about cool web content with a group of self-labeled smart people 🙂

My uncle Aydin Yardim from my dad’s side came to visit this weekend, and we had a great time. He came Friday night, and Micky had cooked lasagna, and we ate fancy dessert from Whole Foods. I made a Winter Squash Penne with Mint Salad from Jamie Oliver’s “15 minute Recipes” cookbook. It took us an hour :-/ with 2 of us doing it :-/ :-/

Another interesting first this week… Miss Amelia fell flat on her face and got a nasty bloody nose. Mr. Luka has 2 bottom teeth.

Oh, and NC State beat #1 Duke to go tops of the ACC!

So I’ll leave you with a bit of a slide show, a big smile, and a lot of optimism for the year ahead. I have new year resolutions to write up, a cool project for Amelia’s birthday to work on, and a secret, new project that I hope to launch in February to look forward to. It’s going to be a great 2013!