I'm SO GLAD we brought these...

• Cortaid...don't leave home without it! A mosquito has been harassing Lacey at night. And the only thing more annoying than an itchy bite is your kid complaining about an itchy bite!
  
• Commercial power transformer and US-plug power strip (thank you, David, for the power strip suggestion!)
  
• Drip water filter. Even though we aren't consuming the water, it is really nice to have clean water from a spigot for tooth brush rinsing and fruit/veggie cleaning. I don't know if I'd bring it again, but I sure do like having it here.
  
• Bamboo tongs
  
• Maple syrup
  

New additions to the list after further reflection (as of 2010-04-11):

• US measuring cups and spoons and a 2-cup liquid measuring cup (I never cooked so much from scratch as last year, and even though we were in Turkey--land of measuring with tea cups and coffee spoons--I was often using US recipes from the cookbook we brought (Joy of Cooking), meant-for-Americans Turkish cookbooks, or online recipes using standard US measures.)
  
• prescription medications for the year. You can get lots of stuff in the pharmacy over-the-counter, but they don't carry all the same medications as they do here. One of mine just happened to be available nearby...in Germany.
  
• Kids chewable Tylenol and Benadryl. No chewables there, only powder to mix with water or pills to swallow. No thanks.
  
• real Band-Aids. Their "plasters" are awful.
  
• pie plate. I think we could have found one, or something that could have semi-worked, but they don't make pies and we knew we'd want to share some with our new friends.
  

**Real sponges for cleaning are few and far between. The norm is the acrylic kind that just move stuff around without picking anything up and that slop water all over. Real ones were carried by Carrefour when we there, but I never saw any at Migros or Real.
**Soaps and lotions are all highly fragranced. We ended up using baby clothes detergent to get away from some of the heavy perfumes, but even that was scented.
**Neutrogena products are pretty readily available, even if they are expensive since they're imported. They're a good brand to use while learning which Turkish products you want to try or how to tell the difference between shampoo and conditioner, or depilatory cream. Hand Cream. Get some. At least if you're in Ankara. Everything outside (and often inside) is dusty and dirty and you're constantly washing your hands. Add to that the dry and cold weather and your hands are happy to have the hand cream.
**Second day we were there I bought a high-end Tefal nonstick frying pan and nice spatula at the Tefal store at the "fancy" mall. Best 100 YTL we spent in terms of keeping us in food without frustration. The lower end pans are the worst of the worst available here.
**Gloria Jeans is the best "Turkish" coffee chain, and they'll grind your coffee for a french press and bag it to take home (en paket). There's Starbucks, too, of course. But ground coffee in the grocery store is Turkish style, meant to be brewed loose in the coffee pot to make Turkish coffee. I don't know the flavor comparisons; I don't drink enough coffee to be able to compare. But Starbucks Frappucinos were nearly identical to US-born Frappucinos, except for the whipped cream, which simply tasted like Turkish milk/cream--which is not bad, just takes some getting used to.