One of the things we loved about Turkey is how much they love kids. Camille spent the entire two weeks fending off unwanted advances by strangers who wanted to pick her up, hold her, kiss her, give her food and other presents, pinch her cheeks and just get as close to her as they possibly could.
She resorted to using what we called “the Heisman.” When people would come up to her and put their hands out as if to pick her up, she would start shaking her head “no” and put her hand straight out to block them. I can’t believe I don’t have a photo of it, but I guess I was too busy laughing to snap a picture.
We went to lunch at this restaurant near our hotel in Istanbul and Camille was perched on my lap, happily chowing down on bread when the owner dragged this enormous baby swing over to our table and wanted to put her in it. We settled for me putting her in it and we all smiled and clapped as she looked at us like we were crazy, but once the owner got it moving, she was happy. I should have gotten a photo of the entire thing because it had a big yellow canopy with gold fringe on it. She looked like a princess on her throne as I tried to time her bites of lunch with the motion of the swing.
