Asamushi Aquarium

We made a foray out into the wilds of Japan today and drove to the Asamushi Aquarium in Aomori. We picked up directions from the family center on base and they were typical of a country with no street names. "Turn on white pole road" "Turn left at the fifth traffic light" and so on. We got there all right, there was some snow along the way and a very long tunnel through a mountain. We thought the ticket price was a little high (1000 yen for each adult) until we realized there was a dolphin show and feeding shows for the otters and dolphins.

Some of the exhibits were a little ghetto, there were small fish tanks for local frogs and such, but for the most part everything was really well-done. Some of the tanks looked kinda small, but they had a huge variety of sea life. The sea lions, seals, and otters were definitely in show-off mode and Annelise couldn't take her eyes off of the turtles. Here eyes were really wide the whole time we were there. The penguins were kind of disappointing, they were all sitting around in the habitat and none of them were in the water.

There was also a tunnel tank where you could walk through the tunnel while fish, some sharks, and a huge stingray swam over and around you. Annelise thought that was really cool, she kept looking around. We ate lunch in the little cafeteria and then went to the dolphin show. We missed watching any of the feedings, we didn't feel like waiting around and having the stroller meant we took up a lot of space.

The dolphin show was really cool, there are 5 or 6 dolphins there but only 2 did the show that we saw. They jumped through a hoop and played with soccer balls and large beach balls and did some other typical dolphin stuff. I wish we had gone to the dolphin tank to see them separately, but Annelise was getting fussy.

We will definitely go back and will probably take any visitors we have. It was worth the price of admission and the aquarium is across the street from the ocean. It was a beautiful drive up there through the mountains, and then you pop out right on the water, so pretty!

I posted some pics on our shutterfly site, check them out. Oh yeah, and Nemo is the same in any language. There were 2 tanks with clownfish in them and the Japanese kids were crowded around them saying "Nemo! Nemo!" It was pretty darn adorable.

She's 4 months old!

Annelise Marie, you are four months old today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone and it's crazy how much you've grown! You're at least 25 inches tall and weigh between 14 and 15 pounds!

You hit a couple of great milestones this month, sweetie! You laughed your first, adorable, baby laugh on March 6. It doesn't happen often, but that makes it even sweeter when it does. You also rolled over for the first time on your own on March 13! You rolled from your tummy to your back and I didn't even see it, I left the room for a couple of minutes and when I came back you weren't the way I left you! You're not very interested in rolling over, though, and haven't done it again since.

Your legs are getting stronger and you can support yourself for longer and longer amounts of time. You even pushed yourself forward the other day. You were laying on your tummy and scrunched up your legs and PUSHED! Granted, your arms weren't cooperating so you scooched on your face, but there was still forward movement!

We didn't get out and do much this month, we've been pretty busy here at home. We did attend our first bazaar on base and bought gifts for lots of people. We bought you your first robe, I pretend it's a kimono. You look so adorable in it and I love dressing you up when we get on the webcam with the family.

We went to the last session of our pottery class last week and took cupcakes to share with everyone. You wore the "I *heart* Japan" onesie that Aunt Sherry gave you, the Japanese people thought it was so cute! You even made friends with an older Japanese woman who carried you around and even put you to sleep while I finished my vase.

Some big things are coming up this month, sweetie. We're going to go to the aquarium this weekend (weather permitting) and at least one cherry blossom festival. I can't wait to see the cherry blossoms and to take pictures of you surrounded by them.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I decided this month that you speak whale. We love Finding Nemo and sometimes you sound just like Dorrie when she's speaking to the whale. You make a variety of sounds and some of them even sound like words. I swear, you even said 'Ranger' once! We have the best conversations, I love chatting with you.

You and your Daddy are too adorable for words. You light up when he walks into the room and he just about melts when you smile at him. Nothing makes me happier than to see the two of you together, the two of you make everything better!

I'll close with a picture of you in your robe, so cute!

Shutterfly and update

Check out our Shutterfly site at ajminear.shutterfly.com for new pics. I'm not posting pics here because I make one big post on Shutterfly every month. I also added new pics to the December and January albums there, some photos that my sister took.

The rest of our belongings arrived yesterday so the house is full again. Annelise slept in her crib for the very first time last night. John spent quite a bit of time putting together the crib, glider, shelves, and jumperoo, he's my hero. Annelise loves her jumperoo, although her legs are so short that I have to put a pillow on the floor so she can bounce around and she hasn't yet figured out how to use her legs to turn herself around to play with the different toys.

We'll be spending the next couple of days unpacking and decorating her room, I'll post pictures on the Shutterfly site once everything is set up!

3 months old!

My little girl is 3 months old today, I can't believe we're here already! Lots of things have happened in the last month, we moved into our new house, Annelise and I went to a pottery class, and Annelise met her pediatrician here!

We love our new house, Annelise, it has two stories and you have your very own room! You're sleeping in a borrowed bed right now, hopefully you'll be in your crib by the time you're 4 months old. We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but I have a limited amount of time in which to unpack during the day because you require so much attention. Daddy bought a very large tv and you love to watch Sesame Street with me. You also love when people sing, you sang along with Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift during the Grammys and be-bopped around when we watched the Oscars, as well.

You went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for your check-up and a couple of shots. You did so well when you got the shots, you only cried for a minute or so and then gave me a dirty look. After a short nap, you were ready to go again and were back to your old, talkative self that night. I took you back to the doctor this week because you had a diaper rash that wouldn't go away and you weigh 13 pounds now!! You're also 23.5" tall, that's almost two feet! You love your doctor, he's a total Doogie and you just smile at him and flirt away! I can't believe how big you've gotten, you don't fit into my arms the same way anymore.

You and I are attending a pottery class here in Misawa, it's interesting. I'm not very good at the potting thing and you had an explosive diaper during the first class. I had to change you on the cold bathroom floor with only the changing pad to protect you and you got very angry with me. You were much better this time and I was able to actually participate in the making of my vase. Mr. Ito did most of the work of shaping it, but I actually did a lot of the shaping of the bottom of it this week. We'll go back one more time in a few weeks to paint it and then Mayu will pick it up after it's fired.

Speaking of Mayu, she's our first Japanese friend! She works on base and leads a lot of the tours within the community that show the military folks cool thing about the area. Besides the pottery class, we've also gone grocery shopping with her in a Japanese grocery store and I'm hoping to start a survival Japanese class on Monday. There will be other excursions in the months to come, but I'll probably have to find a babysitter for you for some of them. I'd like to go to the used kimono shop but it's very dusty and you might get sick.

You've hit your 3-month growth spurt lately and are nursing more often than you used to. I love our time together while you eat, but this really cuts down on the time I have available to unpack our stuff. Daddy and I are ready to have everything set up and you want to be in the middle of it. You're only content in your bouncy seat for five or ten minutes and I just can't do most of this with you in the sling or baby bjorn. I can't wait for your swing and jumperoo to get here next month, you're going to love them so much!

You're officially out of your 0-3 months clothing, thankfully your 3-6 months clothes arrived in the mail this week. You have so many cute new clothes, I can't wait for you to wear them all. I had lots of fun dressing you up in all of your Valentine's Day outfits, now we need something for you to wear on St. Patrick's Day!

Your personality is ever-emerging, you make us smile all the time. You're more talkative than ever, with a wide range of sounds and volumes. You've also taught yourself to play peekaboo, in your own way. You cover your face with your left arm and then pull it down and smile. I LOVE when you do this and it made me so sad that you would only do it for your Daddy for a little while.

I love you so much, Annelise. I can't wait to see how you grow and change over the next month!

We got 9 boxes in the mail today!!! All of the stuff we mailed from Texas arrived, as well as a gift for Annelise from her Uncle George. It has been so much fun opening all of the boxes, I can't wait to get the new bedding on our bed. Annelise has already spent some time in her bouncy seat, she interacts with it so much more than the last time she was in it. I'm also in the process of washing all of her 3-6 months clothes, they arrived just in time. My kid is right on target, the 0-3 months stuff is starting to get tight just as she's about to turn 3 months old.

We finally got the internet hooked up here in the house, so now I can actually post whenever instead of having to go to the cafe, and we even got our Vonage phone hooked up now that the adapter arrived in the mail. We're really starting to settle in here, the kitchen basics are unpacked and I actually cooked dinner tonight. Getting all of the kitchen stuff sorted and put away is going to take some time. Had I known that we had long-term storage available earlier, I would have done like my friend Vanessa and left a lot of the kitchen stuff behind. I definitely would have left the crystal, I very rarely use it at this stage in our lives.

All of my books are unpacked and I've been sneaking time to read here and there. I definitely missed my books while I was in Texas and am sad that I will have to put my book collecting on hold while I'm here. I'm still going to buy new books as they come out, but I probably won't be able to pick up any of the older books that I need to fill out my collection.

Oops, baby's awake!

update

We're in our house, all of the stuff shipped from Clovis has arrived.  There were a few moments of panic when we couldn't find the legs to the dining table, but one of the 11 moving guys found them.  That's right, 11 guys came to move our stuff; they unloaded all 7 crates in less than 2 hours.  We were going to have them unpack the stuff too, but we just didn't know where we were going to put most of it!  We ended up running out and buying some storage stuff for the kitchen to use as an island/peninsula thing and will be buying something else for the utility room and probably something to put upstairs to hold towels.  This house only has closets in the bedrooms so there isn't a linen closet and because of the radiators there's a big space in each bedroom that we can't use.  That has proven to be a little frustrating, the computer is now downstairs instead of in the spare bedroom because otherwise there wouldn't be space for a bed in there!  This means that my dream of having all of the airplane stuff tucked away in a spare room has been dashed.  There are already signs of Fireball and aviation memorabilia sneaking in, such as the Fireball sign on top of the bookcases and the print of a WWII plane hanging in the living room.  And because John is perfectly happy with things decorated in this manner and because I went along with it in Clovis, he doesn't understand why I don't like it.  We'll have to meet in the middle, I'm just not sure where the middle is yet.  

Everything is going to fit, we're just going to have to be a little creative.  We don't have a lot of space to hang stuff, we can only put nails into 2x4's that are already on the walls and they're not on every wall.  We bought our new bed and a rug for the living room that will be delivered this week and we're going to buy the TV and order the new bedroom furniture later in the week.  I can't wait to get the new bed, Annelise takes after her Aunt Lusa and takes up as much space as possible in the bed so she doesn't get to sleep with us much.

We were supposed to go to the winter festival at Lake Towada today but had to skip out.  I came down with a stomach virus on Friday night and John got it yesterday.  He got hit a little harder than I did and is still laid up in bed, I got rid of it in about 24 hours.  My poor husband, the achiness sucks.

I can't wait to post about all of the milestones Annelise has hit lately, she's an amazing little girl!  But y'all have to wait till the 26th for that...

We got a house!!

It's amazing how stressful finding a house has been!  We didn't want to live on base because there is no air conditioning and it gets very hot and humid in August and September (Texas temps, it even breaks 100!) and the only housing available was on the far side of base.  The road can be pretty treacherous on icy/snowy days and y'all know I'm afraid of driving on ice.

We looked at a couple of houses that just would not work for us, and then we finally found one we liked.  We went in Monday afternoon (yesterday) to reserve it and it had been reserved Monday morning.  We were supposed to go look at another one this afternoon but it was reserved already and the realtor hasn't even let anyone in to look at it!  Thinking back, it probably wouldn't have worked for us because it was in the Japanese style with sliding screens for a lot of the interior walls.  While that's really cool to look at, we may not have had enough outside walls for the bookcases and we have to secure those to the walls so Annelise can't pull them down.  (Have you seen that episode of Grey's Anatomy?)

So John found out about an open house today and we rushed over during his lunch hour to see it.  Three couples had already looked at it, but we managed to get back on base and reserve it before anyone else did.  It is two stories and has a very open floor plan on the first floor.  The second floor is all bedrooms, which are little small, but we'll make do.  The best part is that there are 2 bathrooms and we have a huge master closet.  There's also a carport and a small yard, this is going to be a great house to raise Annelise in.  We'll have to buy baby gates and some storage furniture, but it will all work out.

We'll be spending this weekend looking for used furniture for the kitchen and living room, we need some storage pieces, and we'll also order new bedroom furniture for us.  I can't wait for all of our household goods to get here so I can set things up, especially Annelise's room.  She hasn't slept in her crib yet and I am really looking forward to putting up all of the decorations I bought, especially the quilts that were made for her.

By the way, I updated our shutterfly site, click on the link on the right side of the page to see pics of stuff we've done and seen here in Japan!