My New Best Friend/We've Created a Monster

Remember back when I wrote this post telling you about how we were going to be eaten by wild, savage, Turkish street-dogs? Well, it turns out I may have over-estimated the ferociousness of the ownerless mutts that live behind our building. Aside from sniffing me out a couple times while I was carrying groceries, they've not bothered us much in the last few months. I think it's due in part to this bad boy:  

 That's right, we never leave home without our Pet Agree thingamajigger. This little device, more affectionately known in our house as the "Dog Scarer," gives off a really high pitched sound that only dogs can hear.

Okay, that's not exactly true.

I can hear the high pitched noise and that bothers me a little bit.

Anyway, this little device, combined with a loud, "GIT" ("go" in Turkish), sends the big dogs away in a frenzy. The noise doesn't seem to bother the puppies at all, but that's all right because they're still cute and have not yet been corrupted by a rough life on the streets.

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I think I've mentioned a few times before that Ankara traffic is insane and is surely to be the cause of my future mental breakdown. Unfortunately for us, when we're driving and we're in the "concentration zone" that is necessary for road survival, words and actions slip out before we realize that we have an audience in the backseat. Eli has been known to yell out "JERK" and "MOVE IT LADY," in tense situations.   

Recently, I've discovered that Eli is all about the horn. For example, he'll say, "Mom, why aren't we moving?" To which I'll reply, "There's a car in my way." And he'll say, "Then honk your horn. That's what you're supposed to do. Honk, Mom. HONK!"  He's really quite adamant about it.

Well, tonight, as we were driving along in rush hour traffic, a car cut me off and I honked my horn. I immediately heard, "That's the way mom! Good job!!"

It's so nice to get approval from my 3-year-old.