Blumenkrantz Family: January 2007

18th letter
Tues. 1/23/07

It’s pretty early in the morning and I haven’t gone to bed yet and I was just about to, but I just can’t knowing I really need to get this written! The last time I wrote was Dec. 29th, so let’s see what’s happened since then.
For New Year’s a bunch of us got together and had treats and watched movies. We pretty much just ragged on the new Superman movie. But it was fun. -Although no one remembered the sparkling cider.
Bryan didn’t get Airman of the Quarter. Apparently some other guy knew all the right answers to their questions. But they told Bryan’s supervisor that Bryan had the best packet. So had he done better in front of the board…..his supervisor said they should have had Bryan go on leave because then you don’t have to go in front of the board and they only go off your packet – too bad – he would have gotten it! Oh well, it was a good experience. And now that I think about it – that’s good to know that they thought Bryan had the best packet – because they see a lot of those – and that means that Bryan had the most things accomplished, and more impressive things that quarter than the rest that went up against him – so if that’s the case all the more reason he should be selected when the board meets for Officer selection – ‘cuz he’ll have a dang nice packet for them to consider!!
Brock will be 4 months old on Saturday! Yes, yes, I’ve always got to update you on his age. You can tell he’s getting older though…he still doesn’t do much, but still. He FINALLY started hitting stuff with his hands, even though I don’t think he quite gets what he’s doing yet. Yeah, he’s a little pokey. We went to a WIC appt on the 10th and he was 17 pounds with his clothes on, and 24 ¾ inches long. So he’s gained almost 2 pounds since his 2 month doctor’s appt, but only grown a quarter of an inch. The WIC nurse was like, ‘well he’s in the 97th percentile for his weight so we’ll need to watch that because we don’t want him to be obese.’ Um….okay. –How exactly do you “watch” that -? Starve him when he’s crying to eat??..... He’ll only nurse that first early feeding of the day, and besides that will ONLY eat from a bottle. Really weird. When he sits on your lap he’ll use his little abs to pull himself forward but can’t quite master not continuing to fall all the way forward. He’s in 3-6 month clothes but I think he’s closer to the 6-month size so I think I’ll be moving on to the 6-12 month ones. He’s a chubs as you’ll see in the pictures. Bryan took a couple where he’s laying side-by-side with Arlie, a girl who’s double his age – they’re about the same size, but he weighs more than she does. He has his 4-month doctor’s appt next Monday so we’ll see what his measurements are then. Brock has been pretty sick for almost 2 weeks now – a bad cold with a bad cough! Poor little guy! Bryan is sick too – which never happens! Brock loves to play with his washcloths and it’s so fun to make him laugh!!
Bryan takes care of Brock at church now because I teach Primary now. I teach the same class he did – Valiant 9! But of course different kids since the kids he taught moved up to Valiant 10 in January. Thank goodness – he had horrible ones. Our friend teaches that class and he just walked out on them on Sunday ‘cuz he couldn’t stand it any longer and said he ‘just wasn’t going to take it that Sunday.’ Anyway, we’re so squished in this church building that I have to meet with my class in the small kitchen! – Since I have the smallest class of 4 kids. It’ll be good – I’ve forgotten so many scripture stories…it’s pretty bad. Bryan said my mom would be horrified. So you remember that Bryan is the Webelos scout leader now? Well the first Thursday of this month he completely forgot to show up!!
We got family pictures taken tonight. It’s hard with a little kid!! Our friend Tiffany sets up a little studio in her home, it’s pretty cool. I think we got a few good ones. Bryan and I are just not very photogenic! And then if he looks good, I don’t, and vice versa. Sheesh. -Then on top of that trying to get a baby to look at the camera and maybe even smile. Not easy stuff. And he was poopy, fussy, fell asleep, hungry – we went through it all while being there!
We had everyone over here for dinner a couple Sundays ago – so many people squished in such a small place! We had fettuccine alfredo w/chicken – 4x the recipe! We had a lot left over but it was still gone within the week cuz I love that stuff. Then on top of that since Martin Luther King Day was the next day and most everyone had it off, we had everyone over again and we fed them all Digornio pizza and played games. It was fun. The 4 guys that aren’t ‘game players’ played football on Xbox 360 so they had their fun too. It’s fun to have everyone over like that, but gets kind of expensive food-wise! I guess everyone takes their turn. But so many of them will be leaving within the next 3 months – sad!
On the 13th we got a babysitter and went snowboarding with another couple –Josh and Tiffany- to Okuynakuyama- yeah, say that one. -About an hour and a half away. It’s not a very big place but pretty decent! Especially when a day ticket costs only $46 for the both of you!! It was fun trying out all of our new stuff – cuz I had picked up a new board as well, so I had a completely new setup – board, bindings, and boots, all for under $290!! Bryan went snowboarding again on the holiday with Josh, before everyone came over for games. His 3rd time. He went to Hakkoda again – they get the most snow – about 2 hours away – and he said he’s never ridden anything like it. He said there was so much powder that it was like riding a wakeboard. We haven’t gotten much snow here in the city. It’s actually pretty weird – we should be getting a lot more. Average snow fall in January is about 39 inches and we only have about 12 so far. The max 24-hour snow they’ve ever gotten is 27 inches and one time they got 117 inches in the month of Jan. alone!
So I know some of you already know this, but I am losing my hair!!! Another side effect of pregnancy and childbirth! So I learned that it happens to most everyone….but not quite like me. I actually have bald spots and attached pictures of it! I pretty much freaked out when I first noticed it, but everyone says it’ll grow back…..so as long as I can continue to hide it by parting my hair, I’ll be okay. But it better come back!!!! It’s pretty freakish and continues to get worse. Not sure if the pictures do it justice. Eeek.
Bryan took his final CDC test over all of his 5 volumes, and got a 90! The highest in all of the shop is an 84! So he earned 3 days that he’ll be able to take off! We celebrated by going to Karinba’s, a Chinese restaurant off base, and it was okay. A lot of people told us it was good so maybe we were expecting too much. On the way there we stopped by a friend’s to drop something off and they made us leave Brock while we went to eat!! The first time we’ve been on a “date” without him (not counting snowboarding)!
The End.
Julie, Bryan, and Brock

Here is the slideshow of pictures - just click on this link, and then click on the picture, and it starts:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.39bdgkew&x=0&y=w03zbu&localeid=en_US