February Updates...

Here's what's new for our family:




Noah turned five months old on January 22, 2008. He is eating solids and still "talking" up a storm. He loves his activity gym and taking strolls in his Baby Bjorn.

Chris and I are still plugging away at school. Work is a bit crazy for him right now, so getting in "family time" has proved to be rather difficult over the last few weeks. That leads to my next announcement...












A scheduled family getaway to CHINA!




We're visiting three of the country's cities--Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian--in April and are excited to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Terracotta Warriors. It should be exciting to see how Beijing has prepared itself for the upcoming 2008 Olympics. What an adventure! Noah will be quite the world traveler before he even reaches a year of age! :)

~ Amanda

Winter blues=drastic measures

When I get bored and need a pick-me-up, I tend to do drastic things to my hair, which usually amounts to either dying it or chopping it off. I guess the winter blues kicked in and once again, my hair was subjected to my desperate need for some sort of transition. I didn't go too crazy, but the process required five hours, lots of bleach and foils and toner, and two...I repeat...TWO haircuts. :) I have massive amounts of curl now (thanks to Noah) and going shorter was the only way to manage the stuff. That and a handy-dandy flat iron....

Pics to come!

~Amanda

Spinning

I started going with my friend, Erin, to spinning class right before the holidays--I LOVE IT!!! So I was very sad to have to miss this evening's class--Chris was on 24 hour duty at work and therefore couldn't watch Noah.

Unfortunately, it looks like I may have to find a babysitter if I want to make this a permanent routine. As of the end of this month, Chris is scheduled for a lot of travel, leaving me to fend for myself with the little guy. It's frustrating, because this is HARD exercise which I really enjoy doing.

On a positive note, however, I've located the parent/toddler room at the gym which will enable me to work out several times a week without having to worry about making babysitter arrangements. How cool is that?!?! It would actually be nice for Noah to "grow up" in the gym--making it something that he assumes is an ordinary and routine part of one's life, instead of sitting in front of the television all day playing video games. Hopefully, we can get him into golf (I'm taking lessons this Spring) and tennis as he gets older and we can do a lot of family activities on the course and court. Until then, he'll have to settle for the "tummy time"--something which he absolutely hates. :)

~ Amanda

Nishimatsuya

Nishimatsuya is what the American's refer to as "The Baby Store" here in Misawa. Before today, I didn't even know the store's actual name....we just always called it "the baby store." Shortly after arriving here, Chris and I were introduced to 'Ni-shi' by one of the CTF-72 (Chris' command) ladies. She purchased alot of her son's outfits from the place and showed us some of the "ENGRISH" phrases on her son's clothes. Boy, did we get a laugh!!! Most of it is completely nonsensical. This is partially due to the fact that the Japanese to English conversion doesn't translate exactly and partially due to the fact that the Japanese may like the way an English word looks regardless of its actual meaning. (Take a look at http://www.engrish.com/ and you'll see what I mean). If you think that's ridiculous, don't forget that we see this very trend in the States--how many people do you know (or have heard of) that get Chinese characters--Kanji--tattooed on their arms, backs, necks, and other various body parts without really KNOWING what it is that the character means because they think it's cool. Just last month, an American girl here thought she was getting the word 'dirty' (in Kanji, of course) tatooed on her upper arm. Turns out, that the symbol actually meant 'diseased'..... HA! At least the Japanese aren't foolish enough to cover their bodies in permanent ink with words and phrases that don't make any sense. Okay, I digress... :)

Since having Noah, Chris and I have started adding Japanese clothing to his wardrobe. Aside from the crazy, fun phrases, I personally like the overall quality of the Japanese kids' clothes over many of the American clothing available at our BX. For one, the Japanese don't use metal snaps. Apparently, plastic snaps are much safer for babies as they don't have the prongs that can potentially cause a choking hazard. Much of the Japanese clothing is softer and also survives the wash a lot better than even Carter's. I can also get some things at Ni-shi that prevent me from having to order and pay shipping on items from the States. A snow suit, for instance. Anyway, I thought I'd share--I thought most of you would get a good laugh. Our current favorite is the "Super Monkey Baby" outfit! :) It reads:

"SUPER MONKEY BABY...He is the king of the earth, the king of the universe. The ally of justice."

At the very least, it could make a great Halloween outfit! ;)

Hope you all have a great week!

Amanda

Pics of Noah

During her recent visit to Japan, Grandma (Eileen) Dudley managed to take a few pictures of the "little guy" in various states of emotion. :) Here's some of our favorites:


Reflecting on his morning...."Wasn't breakfast just Grrrand???" (insert English voice)

Happy Noah

"No, No, NO!!!....Not the CARSEAT!!!"

"Just you wait...I have something special brewing up to repay you for this terrible injustice..."

The little guy is now babbling....almost incessantly. :) He said something the other day that sounded an awful lot like "UUUUGGGAAAA!!" (like the bulldog) His Uncle Daniel, Aunt Joy, and Cousin Aiden would be Soooooo Proud! :)

Love,

Amanda

I Am Legend...

So I watched director Francis Lawrence's adaptation of Robert Matheson's short story I Am Legend yesterday. It was an entertaining horror flick and good character portrayal of Robert Neville by Will Smith. But as with most movie adaptations of decent literary works, it failed at delivering as great an impact as the original story--I actually read Matheson before seeing the movie. You don't really get the sense of isolation, fear, hatred, depression, etc. that Robert Neville is experiencing. In fact, Lawrence deviated greatly from Matheson's version, making the movie more of a mimicry of 28 Days Later (it could have actually just been called 28 years later) and less about why Neville defines himself as a "legend." Without revealing too much about the original, Lawrence's version just doesn't carry as much impact as Matheson's. In the book, the virus mutated humans into actual vampires. Neville's life is consumed with means of hiding, destroying, and surviving--not only the vampires, but an rising inner turmoil as well. In the movie, the bad guys were simply crazy, fast-moving zombies (ehhh-hmmm...seen that one before???) with an aversion to sunlight who didn't manage to clue in on where Neville was residing until the very end. Kinda hokey...

Anyway, I would definitely recommend reading the book of short stories before seeing the movie. I Am Legend is a short read--less than two hundred pages--and I found the other stories within the book to be equally as entertaining, especially Prey.

Cheers!

Amanda