Blumenkrantz Family: February 2007

19th letter
Tues. 2/20/07

SO, here we are. Brock will be 5 months old next Monday. At his 4-month doctor’s appointment on Jan. 29th he was almost 18 pounds (17lbs 14ozs) and almost 26 inches. -Still in the 95th percentile for his weight there, and the 75th for height and head size. He moves a lot more now, so it’s getting harder to hold him on your lap to burp him. He likes to sit up and stand, with your help of course. He likes to arch his back and he laughs a lot. He can manage playing in a saucer (you’ll see in some of the pictures), but still gets bored of everything pretty fast. He does actually play with things now. He likes TV the best. He got over his screaming phase. I didn’t even realize that until now – that he hasn’t screamed for a long time! I guess not all of you knew that he did. It was like one day he realized how to scream and then did it all the time, whether he was happy or sad or whatever. It was hilarious but right in your ear sometimes! Actually I think I have some video from Jan. 30th of him screaming a little bit in his swing. But now he loves to gurgle – it’s pretty funny. I’m going to try sending a few videos of him – they aren’t all that exciting – but I thought they’d be interesting cuz it’s just way different than a picture. Plus I had a few requests. He’s officially only eating formula now, which is sort of a bummer. I guess he hasn’t really been nursing for quite some time now. Oh well, his decision. I haven’t started him on rice cereal yet, and am just going to wait until he’s 6 months old. He had the croup for a couple days, which sounded so bad one night that I was getting worried, but now has just progressed into a cold with a cough. Poor kid – maybe he’s always going to be sick like me. Problem is we’re always around the little kids who are always sick, who touch everything. What can ya do. He also drools all over the place now, and sucks on his fingers a lot. For awhile there when you were holding him he’d suck and lick your shoulder to death and your shirt would be SOAKED. He still likes to be wrapped up to sleep, too. And he figured out he can curl his tongue out of his mouth! -You’ll see in the video. We finally put our coffee table in our storage unit because it was just too cluttered with all his stuff in here too!
So we still need to go through the family pictures we took and pick the ones we’re going to develop and ones we’re going to send to everyone, and sizes, etc. So, sorry, we’ll get those out soon. But I recently found out that one of my classes has a deadline for the midterm – and so I’ve got hours and hours of homework to do every day. We’ll squeeze that in somewhere I suppose.
We went snowboarding again on the 3rd with Tiffany and Josh again. This time we went with the Base’s Outdoor Rec. They bus you up and everything for one fee. The resort was called Hachemantai. It was way fun and we got into deep powder that I’ve never done before. So Brock had a babysitter from about 6am to 7pm!!
The Super Bowl was of course on our Monday here – we just slept in and Bryan caught like the last 5 minutes. We were going to go over and have breakfast at Ashley’s but her little baby boy, Cadence, got RSV so we stayed away!
I had a Tupperware party as a favor for a friend and made 5 times the recipe for Naomi’s White Chili! I had a ton leftover but that’s what I like! Then the next day we had everyone over for dinner and did a huge breakfast with breakfast cake (coffee cake), a breakfast casserole that we tried for the first time, and waffles with a strawberry mixture and whip cream on top!! All dang good. And all made by Bryan – he did an awesome job! He’s my favorite husband.
For Valentine’s Day we did a babysitting swap and went out to eat at a place called Ohashi’s. One of the steaks that we got you cook yourself on a heated rock grill that they bring to your table! – so that was interesting. We also tried cheese wrapped in pork, fried, in a citrus sauce. That was….different.
February 10th was Bryan’s 25th birthday and he had to work on that Saturday cuz it was in the middle of the Exercise – 5am-5pm. So that was too bad. But I made him his mom’s White Chili and his mom’s chocolate cake. He got a new golf bag, a joystick for the computer to come (when it comes in!), and an 8-man tent! Since we have no idea what happened to our old tent….but that’s okay cuz this one will be so nice since we’ll be able to stand upright in it and have tons of room! We could fit a pack and play and everything in there for Brock. Plus, since we want a big family, we’ll grow into it! So I was excited about that – WE are excited about that. We’ll go camping this summer. Plus thanks so much to those of you for your generosity! He’s trying to figure out what he wants to get with all of the money.
Bryan’s parents are coming for the first 2 weeks of April. We are going to meet them in Tokyo on April 1st and stay in a 5-star military hotel (for way cheap!) for 5 nights, before coming back up here to Misawa. So we are excited about that and excited to see them! I’m excited to go to the TGI Friday’s!! I’m sure that’s not what they’re coming to do though!
So my hair is growing back but I’m still losing a lot, too. And I’m not sure that it’s growing back as thick as it was. But it’s pretty weird to have a patch of really short hair – like the fuzz of hair that Brock’s got on his head!
I had a dentist appt today – yep – free. Another perk of military service. I also did our taxes last week and we’re getting a substantial amount back! We’re excited about that….and it will all go to student loans. But it’s awesome cuz military members can do it online through H&R Block for free. Plus, Bryan’s “pay” stated on his W-2 is actually less than half of what we actually received because of so many of the entitlements not subject to tax (besides the medical, dental, and the housing and utilities while we’ve been here in Japan, that we get for free)! Hooray for being in the military! We would be drop-dead-poor right now had we not gone this route. Did I mention we like being in the Air Force? What a great decision!
So I’m attaching pictures and you’ll see the ones we took the day Bryan received his Bachelor’s Degree Certificate, of his birthday and our frosting beards, of our chubby baby, of him falling asleep in his swing with his finger in his mouth, etc. But most of them are kind of old, and his personality is progressing fast!
Anyway, I think that’s about it. I have few videos I’ll try sending the link to, tonight, too. The one of him in the swing screaming is from Jan. 30, the one on the changing table is Feb. 11, and the one of him rocking back and forth in Bryan’s arms is from Feb. 15. Try to ignore the retarded mom voice.
Okay, love you all.
Bryan, Julie, and Brock

Here is the slideshow link for all of the pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bb6n97yw&x=0&y=bc6h7m&localeid=en_US