21st letter
Mon. 5/7/07
Well a ton happened in April. Sunday April 1st we went to church to see a friend’s baby blessed and said goodbye after the first meeting to 2 friends leaving that week. I cried, she cried, and the other didn’t say a word so that she wouldn’t cry. Sheesh, so much crying. Then we walked on over to the train station and started our trip. Bryan taking care of 2 huge, heavy suitcases (one was ALL Brock’s), and I had a day’s worth diaper bag (a big backpack) on my back and pushed Brock in an umbrella stroller. When you’re switching trains and going up stairs and escalators and hopping over the gap between the train and the platform…all these things in tow make it interesting. Not to mention it was pouring when we left and we were all soaked. We finally made it to Tokyo train station – we took a regular train then switched to the infamous bullet train (Shinkansen) to get there – only to spend 2 hours trying to figure out how to find and buy tickets for the Subway (Metro). We couldn’t find anyone who spoke English – besides the girl at Information that gave us WRONG info and didn’t help us one bit and only made our stay at the station even longer. Grrr. Bryan takes off and tries to find it, leaving me with Brock and the suitcases, so we weren’t dragging those things everywhere. I was not so comfortable with that idea cuz this place was huge and I wasn’t sure he’d be able to find me… so ack, we finally made it out of there. Traveling a subway system with so much stuff, plus where you need to switch lines, climb a few flights of stairs – we got our work out. We made it to the right subway station and walked a big city block to the hotel. Phew! We relaxed about an hour or so I think, then Bryan’s parents showed up. Good thing they got in later, with our ‘delays,’ cuz they can’t get into the hotel without Bryan because it’s a military hotel. This place is so nice but so cheap – like Motel 6 prices – and they’re booked way in advance. Little by little I was able to get a night reserved here, a night reserved there. But when we showed up I still didn’t have rooms for the 2nd night, and they still didn’t have an opening! We checked a bunch of other hotels and they were all booked, then one had an opening – for $150/night each. (We were only paying $33/night each here). So the next morning we packed all our stuff up and the hotel holds your luggage for you during the day – and when we came back about 4 or so, we had gotten a room. So we had to check in and out of a few rooms through our stay, but at least we had a room!
One of the nights we paid a hotel-provided babysitter (a little pricey - $8.75/hr) and we all went to the temple, a 10-minute walk from the hotel. We walked around a lot, rode the subway a lot, and we did 2 bus tours too. There were a bunch of restaurants within walking distance of the hotel and they had a Thai restaurant that we all LOVED. But there was a Japanese restaurant – Kikuya’s – in the hotel- that was EXCELLENT. Very expensive though. We had the Japanese version of an Italian restaurant’s pizza, which was pretty good. And a few mornings we crammed our little posse into an itty-bitty bagel shop. Everything’s always so crammed in there that when you try to fit 4 adults and a stuffed backpack and a kid in a stroller – you take up half the sitting space. I miss the space in America!! I’ll attach a bunch of pictures of our trip. We went to the Imperial Palace Gardens where we got incredibly soaked – the Palace land I think they said was close to 300 acres(!)-right in the middle of Tokyo-just for 2 people to live in! We saw a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple and got to see a bunch of the city as we drove around on the bus tour- it was cool. We took a seaside bus tour as well – and you’ll see the pictures of all that. I have so many pictures that I might have to send a few emails worth of attachments. We went to Tokyo Tower and have some great shots of the city from way up high. We also went to DisneySea (right next to DisneyLand) and you work it out where once 2 of you go through the line and ride the ride, the other 2 switch with you and go to the front. We went to the Hard Rock Café and finally had some surprisingly good American food – something Bryan and I haven’t had for a long time (TGIFriday’s was disappointing-when we went there in March). We bought some cool stuff there. Bryan got a cool t-shirt and I got an awesome sweatshirt and the grandparents got Brock a little t-shirt. Oh yes, and he got some sweet Merlin Mickey Mouse ears from them (amongst other things) at DisneySea too. We went to Ueno Park where they have a few streets lined with Cherry Blossom trees (white trees) – they’re so pretty as you’ll see in the pictures. I guess it’s tradition to drink and eat under the trees cuz it provides good luck or something like that, so there’s a bunch of tarps lining the side of the street. And they had some weird parade thing going on where a bunch of guys walked by playing a clarinet or something like that….with baskets on their heads…. Anyway, we did a lot of things and had a blast. We were there from Sunday night until we left Friday night. Brock was in his stroller almost all day every day and did really well.
It was fun to have Bryan’s parents finally meet Brock. One time Brock grabbed a handful of Cathy’s hair, one in each fist, on each side of her face, and then rubbed his slobbery face in her face – if you can imagine what that looks like – hilarious. Dennis carried him a lot while walking around – this kid is heavy – and his back hurt for sure by the end of their trip! Back here in Misawa we had them try a few restaurants and we drove out to “Shipwrecked Beach,” about 45 minutes north of us. And come to find out later, we should have driven the beach side a little bit longer – then we actually would have seen the ships!! We went to an Aviation museum here too, that Bryan and I hadn’t gone to yet, and it was pretty dang cool. They had a lot of fun hands-on activities and small rides and everything. They even had a flight simulator that was pretty realistic that Bryan was able to take turns with each of us and tell us what to do. That’s hard stuff! Anyway – the best museum I’ve ever been too! So it was sad to see his parents go, but great to have them here for 2 weeks (April 1-14). It worked out really great to meet them in Tokyo, barely have to spend any money on a hotel (a NICE hotel), and be able to have that experience. We do wish that we could have had another day or two there. Misawa is not all that exciting – just a little farm town, really. Bryan’s dad said that we should never live stateside if we have the chance to live overseas – apparently there are these military-sponsored hotels everywhere and so we could have a lot of really great vacations. It was too bad that my mom couldn’t really see Tokyo when she was here, besides just passing through while switching airports - - it’s a fun place. We were always ‘go-go-go’ there.
Bryan had the interview with his wing commander that he needed for his officer package – and the interview bullets that this guy wrote for Bryan could not have been any better. We were so nervous about this cuz it’s a HUGE deal with major impact on his package. When Bryan walked into the interview the guy said, ‘I know who you are and your supervisors have said a lot of good things about you’ – or something close to that anyway. Some of the good things he wrote about Bryan – an excellent communicator – outstanding/enjoyable interview – most mature/goal oriented airman I’ve ever met – the most competitive OTS candidate I’ve ever interviewed – shows a rare maturity and leadership ability for his rank – etc. etc. Everything has gone really well, and there is only one thing we are waiting on. In 2 weeks we will overnight his package and then we wait til mid August.
So school ended the 26th of April, and MAN was I glad for that semester to be over!! For 2 weeks I was dropping Brock off at a friend’s every day at 10am until Bryan got home from work, just so that I could get it done (no way I could have done that normally, but it was a swap – she had already asked me to watch her 2-yr-old girl for 10 days at the end of June so they could go to Australia). I did alright. Now I have a break until Fall Semester starts.
Brock rolls and scoots all over the place now. As he should now that he’s about 7 ½ months old. We are in search of a good reversible car seat – it’s obvious his carrier is too small. He sits up just great which is so nice (‘bout time – he got the hang of it while Bryan’s parents were here). He likes his saucer and he bounces up and down like crazy in that thing, and he rocks it back and forth too. It’s pretty funny – I have a video of it that I’ll send out. His 2 bottom teeth just poked through and they are sharp! He still sleeps in his swaddler – can’t believe he still likes that thing! And he just recently will roll over to sleep on his side…even wrapped up like he is. We might have to cut his hair a little soon, cuz it’s getting close to being in his eyes. He loves his cereal and jar food – he seems to eat whatever – but maybe has a slight preference for vegetables. He likes to play with his pacifier more than suck on it – it was hilarious – when we were driving in the car he was getting sleepy and just popping it out of his mouth over and over again – you’ll see it in the video. Brock was blessed on Sunday, April 8th – cuz we were waiting until Bryan’s parents were here. Yep, Easter Sunday. We had an easter basket for his parents and everything – and hid it so well it took them awhile to find – we pigged out on candy that week. They brought Brock some pretty cool sports plastic eggs. We were gonna color eggs and Bryan had bought this egg tie-dye kit…but we forgot to buy vinegar. Oops. Brock is in STAGE 4 diapers – I know an 18-mo-old that wears Stage 3! He had the croup pretty bad while the grandparents were here, and we ended up taking him in for the steroid shot for that. Oh yeah, and for some reason the Japanese seem very interested in Brock. While we were in Tokyo at Ueno park a few guys came running up to us and were taking their picture next to Brock – then all of the sudden a HUGE group of Japanese came running up to take pictures of him. We tried to take pictures of this picture-taking episode, but the group was already starting to disperse by the time we got one – but you’ll see the tail-end of it in our pic. Maybe they think he looks like a little Buddha baby or something. It was SO funny though. And he seemed to learn a few weird faces and noises from his Grandma – pretty funny – but stopped doing those. We went and got his pictures taken while they were here – and he got some in a little Buddha outfit. Well the studio asked us if they could put one of his pictures in their display! He also got his picture taken in a dress – a tradition (taking a picture in this dress at 6 mos old – the dress is very old!) in Bryan’s family that has now gone through 5 generations I think.
Um, all else is well. I’m still the Enrichment Leader running 2 enrichments a month, and a monthly luncheon. I finally got released as a primary teacher. I did sharing time my last Sunday in primary and I had my class run the whole thing…it went okay…but it was far too short. I have to teach Relief Society this Sunday – it’ll be my first time ever teaching adults in church. We had to say goodbye to more friends last week and that was sad. It’s getting warmer – today’s high was 67- the bugs are coming out…eeeee. Last week I finally cut my hair, and I got bangs (!) to hide my pokey boy hair that sticks straight up in the front (re-growth of the baldness). Well I will send out 2 emails to divide up the pictures. I can send emails up to 10MB in size – so I don’t know what all your email can handle. And I’ll send out a link so that you can get to the 9 most recent videos (since the last letter).
I think that’s it (finally!). Some of you I am way behind on getting back to personally. I’ll get on it! I’m sorry! I was going to get this out first and then get to that. Well, love and miss you all!!
Julie, Bryan, and Brock Blumenkrantz
For all of the many pictures click on this link for the slideshow:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.aifxeims&x=0&y=fynku1&localeid=en_US
Monday, May 7, 2007
Pictures in April
4/11/07
4/7/07 - Brock and his Grandpa Blumenkrantz
4/8/07
4/9/07
4/11/07
April 2007Brock's Buddha picture
9 Videos
All videos are cruddy quality on here as always
4/2007 - An interesting parade in Ueno Park, Tokyo
4/2007 - A bit long...but funny. Brock likes to 'pop' his pacifier...even while falling asleep.
4/8/07 - Brock can swing himself - he doesn't need any help from the swing motor! (6 months old)
4/12/08 - Brock sits with G&G Blumenkrantz - a bit long. Plus we all start making weird noises at the end...
4/16/07 - Brock sitting on the floor, having fun...this one and the next 3 videos are all the same night -- he chews at his blanket, in the next one it sounds like he's saying "Mama," and then he starts making spitting noises, and then he throws himself backwards! Then in the next 2 he plays in his saucer - first he basically eats it, and then I can catch only part of the bouncing.
5/4/07 - Brock bouncing and rocking his saucer -- and his hair is going crazy!!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
3/27/07 - 20th Letter
20th letter
Tues. 3/27/07
Holy crap! I know it’s been awhile but I’ve been busy! I barely have time to do this but I wanted to get a letter out. I’m a little stressed because I’m a little worried that I’m not going to get everything done in time before the end of the semester. And we have 2 good friends leaving next week! Sunday we are heading to Tokyo by bullet train! So we will have to say goodbye to them a little earlier, and are missing the last big get together with everyone on Sunday!! That part is a bummer but we are excited to meet Bryan’s parents down there. We will be there until Friday, the 6th. Then they will come back up here with us, and leave on the 14th. Bryan is pretty excited because he has scheduled work off for the entire time. He is looking forward to his vacation. We are excited about being able to see his parents again after 10 months. It will be fun, but I will have to do homework while they are here!
So much has happened since I last wrote. We actually just went down to Tokyo (Yokota Air Base) from the 8th-10th. We rented a van from Outdoor Rec and drove! Bryan needed to take his TBAS test (Test of Basic Aviation Skills) for part of his officer package for pilot. So yes, we drove halfway across Japan and spent a decent amount of money just so he could take it since they don’t have it here!! It was an interesting drive – not bad – and Brock did really well. I think it took just over 9 hours to get there and we stayed at the hotel on base. Bryan took the test the next afternoon and then we drove to a military-sponsored hotel located in more downtown Tokyo. It took us an hour and a half to get there…because Tokyo is HUGE! Someone was just telling me that Tokyo is 800 square miles! We took the subway to TGI Friday’s – much anticipated – and it was expensive and disappointing. And I was so excited to have good American-restaurant food again… Snap. Then the next morning we checked out and drove back. So we didn’t have time to really do anything – but the purpose of the trip was the test – and we knew we were coming back down again to meet his parents. The driving was uneventful except for a few turn-around-we-missed-our-exit-‘s.
We also did the ’10-DAY MASTER CLEANSE’-!!! Typically known as the lemonade diet. HOLY CRUD – honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I can’t believe we did it! We almost gave up a few times. For those of you that don’t know, it consists of drinking an herbal laxative tea at night, downing 32 oz. of salt water first thing in the morning, and drinking a nasty fresh-squeezed lemon juice, organic grade b pure maple syrup, water, and cayenne pepper mixture all day. I hated every bit and every part of it and was just plain hungry the whole time! I can’t believe we went without food for 10 days. Amazing. I had to plug my nose to drink the salt water (and try not to throw up), plug my nose to drink the day mixture, and plug my nose to drink the tea. Even the smell of the maple syrup and herbal tea made me sick. Bryan didn’t mind the day mixture – he thought it tasted like lemonade (hence the name). He easily handled the tea, too. Anyway, man I was glad when it was over!! I lost 10 pounds and he lost 8. I ordered enough supplies for 20 days for both of us – but we could not do more than the minimum of 10 (a friend here did it for 30 days!). So I was bummed by the money spent on the unused stuff, but I just found out we have a friend who wants to do it and is going to buy it all off me! YAY.
SO, Brock is/was 6 MONTHS OLD today! That’s a big one. We also had his 6-mo appt today. And guess how much he weighed….first, let me remind you that at his 4-mo he was 17 lbs 14 oz. He is now 20 lbs 14 oz. He is 27.5 inches long. Those are both in the 90th percentile. His head is 17.5 in and that’s in the 75th percentile – which is surprising cuz his head looks HUMONGOUS next to the other little kids’. So this kid continues on that upper level growth curve. He is basically in 9-mo-old clothes. He really might be too small for his carrier, but I wanted to wait just a little bit longer before we got a rear-facing car seat. But it’s pretty heavy to carry him around in that carrier! Plus they don’t have the car seat we wanted here right now. The continuous joys of being secluded in a foreign country. So he sits up but gets too excited so he falls to the side or backwards. He loves sitting up though and I looked all over for a playmat that he tried, that was actually like sitting in an inner tube with things hanging overhead. He LOVED that thing – wish they would’ve let me have it… He finally started rolling over consistently a week ago – but he goes from back to belly, and only a few times has gone from belly to back. He also only rolls to his left…weird. I think it was about 3 wks ago that we finally started him on rice cereal. Yeah I started him a little later cuz of this thing on Dr. Phil where pediatricians said it was now recommended to wait until 6 mos instead of starting them on the cereal at 4-6 mos…but I could tell he was ready so we started him. Bryan was really excited to do it. I also kept track a few days really how much formula he was taking in…and he is not eating as much as his weight leads you to believe! He is, on average, actually under the range of ounces they say his age is eating. He has also started screaming for fun again. Oh, AND, he still likes being swaddled! He actually slept pretty decent for a week without it, but then we got a large micro fleece SwaddleMe in the mail and put him back in it; and now it seems like he’s sleeping better than ever! I don’t know what’s up with his hair either – it just sticks straight up! The front has finally started to lay down, as it gets longer. Someone asked me the other day if his hair was ‘staticky’ – I said no it’s always like that no matter what you do (except with a lot of gel)! He still slobbers like crazy, so if he’s sitting upright he needs a bib for sure. He really likes paper and gets pretty upset when you take it away from him! He likes to yank his pacifier out of his mouth to make a popping sound – same with his bottle – it’s pretty silly. Oh and speaking of, for awhile now, for the most part he’ll hold his bottle himself to eat. It makes it REALLY convenient when you’re out and about, especially when you’re eating, yourself! Anyway…he’s fun. And everyone seems to think he looks like Bryan.
I found out I am to be the next Enrichment Leader for church. SNAP. I had a feeling that was going to happen but I was hoping it wouldn’t. Even the Relief Society President told me that she would hate being that – and that it’s too much work! I am currently the food coordinator (yes I think they made that one up, but it actually was more work than I thought it was going to be!) as part of the enrichment committee (besides also being a primary teacher). Like 60% of the branch is moving out within the next couple months!!
Most of the pictures I’m attaching are a little old. The one of Brock in the saucer in a sleeper is from the 20th. The one of Bryan holding him where he’s in the green and white sleeper is from the 14th. Then pictures from Tokyo (views from the highway) and the TGI Fridays there from the 8th-10th. There’s a video from the 12th of Bryan playing with Brock on the changing table. Then a video from the 5th of Brock’s first experience eating from a spoon, and a few pictures of that as well. Then there’s pics from the 3rd where Bryan put a bunch of gel in his hair to keep it from sticking up, and he just ended up slicking it down. On March 1st he sleeps. There’s a video of him on the floor, half out of his green swaddler cuz it’s too short, from Feb. 24th. A video of him wrapped up in his bouncer from Feb. 23rd, and another one in the bouncer from Feb. 22nd. -And a goofy looking picture of him laying on the floor. So I guess I’ll load those 5 videos onto photobucket and send the link to them. For those of you who can handle receiving larger-sized emails I can actually send up to a 45-second video directly thru email but it’s a 10MB email. But you could open it up in your own media viewer and it would be better quality than photobucket.
Oh, by the way – Bryan got a 92 on the test that he went to Tokyo to take. It’s a simulator-like test on a computer with a joystick and pedals. The score takes into account how well he did on the test (TBAS), the amount of flight hours he has (255), and his pilot score on the AFOQT (96). We’ve been working on his officer package and it’s coming together nicely. We are getting towards the end. He has his interview on Friday. Then he’ll take the Letter of Recommendation that we wrote and has since been revised a bit by his supervisors, to the upper-level guy (group commander) to hopefully also agree to and sign his name to. Also a simple prerequisite physical to get done – and that would basically cover it – and we send this baby off the first available day – May 23rd!
So, DENNIS – sorry I missed your calls today. You are funny – it’s a voicemail system, not an answering machine…so I wouldn’t be able to hear you keep talking while you wait for me to pick up.
JENNI – sorry – I know, I was going to send a card with your package, and totally forgot until I already had the box completely wrapped and taped up!
We finally think we have our family pictures all picked out. Tomorrow I will have Tiffany resize them to all the different sizes needed to send them out to everyone. But they aren’t great or anything 'cuz we just aren't photogenic people (!)…so don’t expect much – Bryan and I can’t seem to look normal simultaneously. But we’ll probably mail out some to most of you, and I think I’ll send out an email with all of them. Then you can print off what you want, or none at all, whatever.
There are a few of you that I’m really behind on getting a letter back to – I’m sorry! Hopefully I can get those written before we leave on Sunday.
Well it’s almost 3am. I probably won’t be able to avoid these late nights until this semester is over – can’t wait.
See you later!!
Julie
Bryan
Brock
For all the pictures, here is the link to the slideshow:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bttcv55g&x=0&y=-egrbfv&localeid=en_US
As usual, just click on the link, then click on the picture, and the slideshow starts.
Tues. 3/27/07
Holy crap! I know it’s been awhile but I’ve been busy! I barely have time to do this but I wanted to get a letter out. I’m a little stressed because I’m a little worried that I’m not going to get everything done in time before the end of the semester. And we have 2 good friends leaving next week! Sunday we are heading to Tokyo by bullet train! So we will have to say goodbye to them a little earlier, and are missing the last big get together with everyone on Sunday!! That part is a bummer but we are excited to meet Bryan’s parents down there. We will be there until Friday, the 6th. Then they will come back up here with us, and leave on the 14th. Bryan is pretty excited because he has scheduled work off for the entire time. He is looking forward to his vacation. We are excited about being able to see his parents again after 10 months. It will be fun, but I will have to do homework while they are here!
So much has happened since I last wrote. We actually just went down to Tokyo (Yokota Air Base) from the 8th-10th. We rented a van from Outdoor Rec and drove! Bryan needed to take his TBAS test (Test of Basic Aviation Skills) for part of his officer package for pilot. So yes, we drove halfway across Japan and spent a decent amount of money just so he could take it since they don’t have it here!! It was an interesting drive – not bad – and Brock did really well. I think it took just over 9 hours to get there and we stayed at the hotel on base. Bryan took the test the next afternoon and then we drove to a military-sponsored hotel located in more downtown Tokyo. It took us an hour and a half to get there…because Tokyo is HUGE! Someone was just telling me that Tokyo is 800 square miles! We took the subway to TGI Friday’s – much anticipated – and it was expensive and disappointing. And I was so excited to have good American-restaurant food again… Snap. Then the next morning we checked out and drove back. So we didn’t have time to really do anything – but the purpose of the trip was the test – and we knew we were coming back down again to meet his parents. The driving was uneventful except for a few turn-around-we-missed-our-exit-‘s.
We also did the ’10-DAY MASTER CLEANSE’-!!! Typically known as the lemonade diet. HOLY CRUD – honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I can’t believe we did it! We almost gave up a few times. For those of you that don’t know, it consists of drinking an herbal laxative tea at night, downing 32 oz. of salt water first thing in the morning, and drinking a nasty fresh-squeezed lemon juice, organic grade b pure maple syrup, water, and cayenne pepper mixture all day. I hated every bit and every part of it and was just plain hungry the whole time! I can’t believe we went without food for 10 days. Amazing. I had to plug my nose to drink the salt water (and try not to throw up), plug my nose to drink the day mixture, and plug my nose to drink the tea. Even the smell of the maple syrup and herbal tea made me sick. Bryan didn’t mind the day mixture – he thought it tasted like lemonade (hence the name). He easily handled the tea, too. Anyway, man I was glad when it was over!! I lost 10 pounds and he lost 8. I ordered enough supplies for 20 days for both of us – but we could not do more than the minimum of 10 (a friend here did it for 30 days!). So I was bummed by the money spent on the unused stuff, but I just found out we have a friend who wants to do it and is going to buy it all off me! YAY.
SO, Brock is/was 6 MONTHS OLD today! That’s a big one. We also had his 6-mo appt today. And guess how much he weighed….first, let me remind you that at his 4-mo he was 17 lbs 14 oz. He is now 20 lbs 14 oz. He is 27.5 inches long. Those are both in the 90th percentile. His head is 17.5 in and that’s in the 75th percentile – which is surprising cuz his head looks HUMONGOUS next to the other little kids’. So this kid continues on that upper level growth curve. He is basically in 9-mo-old clothes. He really might be too small for his carrier, but I wanted to wait just a little bit longer before we got a rear-facing car seat. But it’s pretty heavy to carry him around in that carrier! Plus they don’t have the car seat we wanted here right now. The continuous joys of being secluded in a foreign country. So he sits up but gets too excited so he falls to the side or backwards. He loves sitting up though and I looked all over for a playmat that he tried, that was actually like sitting in an inner tube with things hanging overhead. He LOVED that thing – wish they would’ve let me have it… He finally started rolling over consistently a week ago – but he goes from back to belly, and only a few times has gone from belly to back. He also only rolls to his left…weird. I think it was about 3 wks ago that we finally started him on rice cereal. Yeah I started him a little later cuz of this thing on Dr. Phil where pediatricians said it was now recommended to wait until 6 mos instead of starting them on the cereal at 4-6 mos…but I could tell he was ready so we started him. Bryan was really excited to do it. I also kept track a few days really how much formula he was taking in…and he is not eating as much as his weight leads you to believe! He is, on average, actually under the range of ounces they say his age is eating. He has also started screaming for fun again. Oh, AND, he still likes being swaddled! He actually slept pretty decent for a week without it, but then we got a large micro fleece SwaddleMe in the mail and put him back in it; and now it seems like he’s sleeping better than ever! I don’t know what’s up with his hair either – it just sticks straight up! The front has finally started to lay down, as it gets longer. Someone asked me the other day if his hair was ‘staticky’ – I said no it’s always like that no matter what you do (except with a lot of gel)! He still slobbers like crazy, so if he’s sitting upright he needs a bib for sure. He really likes paper and gets pretty upset when you take it away from him! He likes to yank his pacifier out of his mouth to make a popping sound – same with his bottle – it’s pretty silly. Oh and speaking of, for awhile now, for the most part he’ll hold his bottle himself to eat. It makes it REALLY convenient when you’re out and about, especially when you’re eating, yourself! Anyway…he’s fun. And everyone seems to think he looks like Bryan.
I found out I am to be the next Enrichment Leader for church. SNAP. I had a feeling that was going to happen but I was hoping it wouldn’t. Even the Relief Society President told me that she would hate being that – and that it’s too much work! I am currently the food coordinator (yes I think they made that one up, but it actually was more work than I thought it was going to be!) as part of the enrichment committee (besides also being a primary teacher). Like 60% of the branch is moving out within the next couple months!!
Most of the pictures I’m attaching are a little old. The one of Brock in the saucer in a sleeper is from the 20th. The one of Bryan holding him where he’s in the green and white sleeper is from the 14th. Then pictures from Tokyo (views from the highway) and the TGI Fridays there from the 8th-10th. There’s a video from the 12th of Bryan playing with Brock on the changing table. Then a video from the 5th of Brock’s first experience eating from a spoon, and a few pictures of that as well. Then there’s pics from the 3rd where Bryan put a bunch of gel in his hair to keep it from sticking up, and he just ended up slicking it down. On March 1st he sleeps. There’s a video of him on the floor, half out of his green swaddler cuz it’s too short, from Feb. 24th. A video of him wrapped up in his bouncer from Feb. 23rd, and another one in the bouncer from Feb. 22nd. -And a goofy looking picture of him laying on the floor. So I guess I’ll load those 5 videos onto photobucket and send the link to them. For those of you who can handle receiving larger-sized emails I can actually send up to a 45-second video directly thru email but it’s a 10MB email. But you could open it up in your own media viewer and it would be better quality than photobucket.
Oh, by the way – Bryan got a 92 on the test that he went to Tokyo to take. It’s a simulator-like test on a computer with a joystick and pedals. The score takes into account how well he did on the test (TBAS), the amount of flight hours he has (255), and his pilot score on the AFOQT (96). We’ve been working on his officer package and it’s coming together nicely. We are getting towards the end. He has his interview on Friday. Then he’ll take the Letter of Recommendation that we wrote and has since been revised a bit by his supervisors, to the upper-level guy (group commander) to hopefully also agree to and sign his name to. Also a simple prerequisite physical to get done – and that would basically cover it – and we send this baby off the first available day – May 23rd!
So, DENNIS – sorry I missed your calls today. You are funny – it’s a voicemail system, not an answering machine…so I wouldn’t be able to hear you keep talking while you wait for me to pick up.
JENNI – sorry – I know, I was going to send a card with your package, and totally forgot until I already had the box completely wrapped and taped up!
We finally think we have our family pictures all picked out. Tomorrow I will have Tiffany resize them to all the different sizes needed to send them out to everyone. But they aren’t great or anything 'cuz we just aren't photogenic people (!)…so don’t expect much – Bryan and I can’t seem to look normal simultaneously. But we’ll probably mail out some to most of you, and I think I’ll send out an email with all of them. Then you can print off what you want, or none at all, whatever.
There are a few of you that I’m really behind on getting a letter back to – I’m sorry! Hopefully I can get those written before we leave on Sunday.
Well it’s almost 3am. I probably won’t be able to avoid these late nights until this semester is over – can’t wait.
See you later!!
Julie
Bryan
Brock
For all the pictures, here is the link to the slideshow:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bttcv55g&x=0&y=-egrbfv&localeid=en_US
As usual, just click on the link, then click on the picture, and the slideshow starts.
Brock's first eating experience!
March 5, 2007 - 5 months, 1 week old
Bryan was so excited to feed him!
Almost 6 months old
3/20/07
I think he is enjoying Baby Einstein here.As I said in the letter, a week from this picture he had his 6 month check-up. At 20 lbs 14 ozs he gained exactly 3 pounds since his 4-mo.! At 27.5 inches long his height and weight are both in the 90th percentile. Even though his head looks absolutely huge, it's still just in the 75th percentile!
Brock's videos
2/22/07 - Brock likes TV!
2/23/07 - Brock hanging out late at night
2/24/07 - Brock, although sick, has a grand time on the floor! (almost 5 mos old)
3/5/07 - Brock's first time eating with a spoon, LIVE! He 'gobbles' his spoon!
3/12/07 - Bryan plays with Brock on the changing table. Brock's yell sounds like a cry!
Family Pictures - from January 22, 2007
Brock is almost 4 months old in these pics
Here is a link to a slideshow with all of the pictures. We've got a lot of bad ones!!
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.cokeqifo&x=0&y=nskajl&localeid=en_US
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