Nine Months Old!!

Full post to come, I'm tired and don't feel like blogging today. On the plus side, I'm going to try a weekly 'survey' like Roommate and Friend do so that you guys are kept more up-to-date on what we're up to.

Well, Annelise, you've now been outside my tummy as long as you were inside it. You're definitely not the tiny little thing that Dr. Fuelberth took out of me, you get taller and heavier every day. We don't spend much time at the beach these days because you're too heavy for me to cart around for long. Your looks are changing, when you were born you looked just like me, but now you look more like your daddy. Your eyes are still a beautiful blue, you have Babi to thank for that, and your hair is growing and getting thicker. We're still stuck using headbands but I figure you'll have enough hair for pigtails before you're two...

We've had another great month here in Japan, Daddy climbed Mt. Fuji with Uncle Derick and Auntie Lisa and brought you back a climbing stick. We spent more time at the Dirty Kimono Shop where you get to see your friends, the crazy old men who work there. After our last trip there we went to breakfast with Kim, Junko, and Akiko and you had your first taste of eggs! You really like scrambled eggs, but if I feed them to you, you take them out of your mouth so you can feed yourself. We haven't fed you many new foods this month, when I feed you 'real food' at our dinner time (around 6), you don't eat enough breastmilk before bed and wake up hungry a few hours later. I've got to get better about feeding you something at lunch, but I usually just grab a sandwich instead of cooking something.

We parked our car at the American Park one Saturday for a huge yard sale, that was a lot of fun. We made about $100 (which I used to fuel my kimono addiction and at my new favorite recycle shop) and you made a friend named Lily! It was a long day, but we got rid of a bunch of stuff that we didn't need anymore. We did go to the beach three times this month looking for sea glass, we found some cool shells and sand dollars, but not a whole lot of sea glass. We also made two trips to Aomori, one to drop off Tia Yazmin and Tio David at the airport and one to pick them up. On our first trip, we found an amazing recycle shop called Crazy Used Store Bomber, it's my new favorite place to shop except for all the stuffed animals. And by stuffed, I mean someone spent a LOT of money at the taxidermist's. I bought you your first Elmo doll there, along with a few kokeshi dolls and a really cool gift for your godfather. On our second trip, we went to the Big Buddha, which was very interesting. I was the unofficial tour guide since I was the only one who bothered to read the guidebook, and we enjoyed discovering what each building or site was meant for. There was a very sad area full of pinwheels stuck in the ground that were placed there in memory of unborn children, but it was nice that they are remembered. We really liked taking pictures all over the place and even got a cute one of you in a big basket!

One of the most interesting things we did this month was actually two things! The store on base held a Christmas in July event and you got to take a picture with Santa Claus, and then the next week you got to take a picture with Elmo! You didn't mind Santa, but Elmo scared you; you like to have a chance to assess the situation and when Elmo walked right up and got in your face a little, you freaked! You're crying in the pics with Elmo, but I figure you need some of that kind of photos to show your therapist in a few decades.

This was also the month of the Misawa City Festival. We went to the parade on Friday evening and got to see some amazing floats that were all made right here in Misawa. The parade on Saturday didn't have big amazing floats, but it did have lots of people in crazy costumes. There were sumo wrestlers, ninjas, and even a whole group of men dressed like Michael Jackson. Some people might think that they dressed that way because MJ passed away this summer, but they are apparently in the parade every year! The only disappointment from this festival was the lack of potato on a stick, my favorite festival food.

Annelise, you are a very sweet and smart girl. You know just when to do the sweetest things, like snuggling with me or Daddy or giving kisses or saying 'I Love You'. That's right, you're only nine months old and can already say I Love You! Granted, it sounds more like 'ah la lya', but you say it in response to someone telling you they love you so I think it counts. Your favorite words are Mama, Dada, Babi, Nana, Me, and Lala, you even said something that sounded like Grandaddy the other day! You have figured out how to work some of your toys this month, like the caterpiller you got for Valentine's Day. You hook the pull around your teeth and pull the caterpiller away from you to make it jiggle. I'm pretty sure this is bad for your teeth so you don't get to play with him anymore. You have learned how to 'find hidden objects' (that's a milestone!) by taking toys out of their containers and try to roll toys down the neck of your Roll A Rounds toy. The Roll A Rounds toy, however, is not as good of a toy as I originally thought, you tried to climb on the steps of the tail (it's a dinosaur) and also tipped it over trying to climb on it. You really like to dance and sing, the Friends theme song is a favorite of yours, and you even decided to dance after an earthquake!

We got to see three of my Great-Aunties on Skype this month, you were amazed by how much they talk. You still love talking on the phone and on Skype, you especially love giving kisses and telling on me. I swear, you get a different tone to your voice sometimes and I just know that you're telling on me for not letting you chew on something or for buckling you in your carseat and taking you somewhere when you really want to crawl all over the place.

Annelise, you're getting closer and closer to standing on your own, but you're still very scared of it. The other day, Daddy noticed that after you clap your hands, you clasp your fingers together. You're so cute and smart!! I think you weigh about 20 pounds now, but we won't find out for sure until Sept 16th, there's only one pediatrician right now so we had to wait awhile to get an appointment.

This coming month is sure to be full of fun stuff, Japan is always serving up one surprise or another and you never cease to amaze me!

Quick update

We've been up to a lot, yet not a lot, lately. John climbed Mount Fuji at the beginning of the month with a couple of our friends. They started in the evening and climbed overnight to see the sunrise at 4:30. He had a lot of fun and they brought back some amazing pictures. We've spent a lot of time hanging out with friends, going to each other's house for dinner and whatnot. Annelise and I have also spent quite a bit of time running around doing a whole lot of nothing. I feel like we leave the house almost every day but don't get a whole lot done. Yesterday we found an amazing recycle shop in Aomori, there were several things that I would have liked to bring home with me but didn't have the money or space in the car for. That's probably a good thing, I realized that I don't really need a curio cabinet just now and that although the samurai helmet was really cool, we don't have a place for it in our house. I did, however, come home with four new kokeshi dolls and some bobble-head Morioka horses, as well as a birthday gift for someone special. We're going to go back to Aomori this weekend to pick up some friends from the airport (I dropped them off yesterday, that's why I was there) and hope to check out the Big Buddha there. I can't wait to post pics, this Buddha is seriously gigantic, you can walk around inside the statue, and he's not the tubby guy that Americans imagine, he's more regal.

I'm finally getting started on my craft projects, I'm currently working on a curtain-ish thing to cover our linen cabinet and am finally starting a quilt that I meant to make almost 2 years ago. I then want to try my hand at teddy bears and purses made from the awesome kimonos I've been buying and work on some sea glass jewelry. Speaking of which, I have plans to go back to the kimono shop and also to search for sea glass next week!

Have I said lately how grateful I am that John went to weapons' school? Thanks to him going through six months of hell, I get to live in this paradise and try all kinds of new things. Before we got this assignment, I always said that the one place I didn't want to get stationed was Asia because it was just too different from everything I'm used to. I'm so glad that God and the Air Force didn't ask for my opinion! I've already made so many new friends and so many wonderful memories and I can't wait to see what else this assignment has in store for us!! This just goes to show that there is good to be found in every event in life, in every place the Air Force sends you. I don't believe that crap about God not listening or not answering prayers; I believe that sometimes He says 'No' for your own good, just like I tell Annelise 'No' when she tries to chew on an electrical cord or climb up the stairs. She doesn't understand why, but I do, and the same thing goes for events in our lives. We don't understand, but God does, and being in the Air Force has definitely taught us that.