Our stories.......: In my point of view......

Some friends, and even our parents were asking on how me & Hubby managed to look after an infant and a baby during our holiday? you know - "Didn't they give us trouble? Aren't they cranky? Didn't they this? Aren't they that?"... Well, the answer is NO!!!! and We had so much fun with them around us.

Of course being small kids they have a certain attitude, but I must say Alhamdulillah (and am not bragging about my own children!) but they were really good and easy to handle. Just once in a while, when Ehsan got restless and needed to leave his stroller or he didn't want to go back to the hotel room. Apart from that it was all fine.

We don't blame Ehsan for showing his tantrum. But once we knew what the cause was, we just simply alihkan pandangan dia so that he would be ok. The holiday was mainly for us and at his age he knows nothing about the places that we brought him. So we don't really blame him. He made it difficult to keep sitting in his stroller or wear his sweater. So hubby needed to carry him plus the extra baggage on his back (Beg susu & all his gadgets!). That was the only hardest part. We also admit that a long holiday is not for small kids because they tend to get tired easily, not enough rest and eventually leading up to them getting sick.

We put this in consideration - we made sure that our plan included their nap times. It worked most times, except for the cold weather plus it was raining the first 2 days that we arrived, which eventually led to Ehsan having flu.

Erica, on other hand was such a nice and wonderful girl. She didn't even merengek nor meragam. She would wake up as early as the parents and his brother to start the new day. After we bathed her and got ready for the tour we would load her up into the baby carrier and she just sit there quietly and peacefully! 10 minutes later and she would already be in her dreamland! She will only wake up once we stop walking or speak too loud. Apart from that she was just simply a nice princess. Nothing to be worried about should hubby bring us to another holiday dalam masa terdekat (wink, wink).

Lastly, here are some tips for those who have small kids like us and are interested to have a trip to Istanbul :

1 - A carrier and a stroller will do. But make sure a heavy duty stroller with 4 off-road wheels, as the roads are mostly brick and the sites have lots of staircases which are not child/stoller friendly.

2 - Just be on the safe side, bring an umbrella - in case the weather gets unpredictable or you'll have to just stay in your room!!

3 - Wet-ones are a must, as the water in the public w.c is too cold, even in the shopping mall. Pity their little butts that have to be washed!!

4 - Enough milk and diapers supply - it's hard to find those in the tourist shops