Catching up

It's been way too long since I updated and we have been living in Japan for 3 months... or so I should say myself and R have been living here for 3 months. Our sailor left a few weeks after we got here on a deployment and we have been keeping very busy to pass the time!

We survived our first earthquake and typhoon! The earthquake was a small one, measuring 1-2 but I happened to feel it because I was putting R down for his nap, and Typhoon Sunba was very tame, and not nearly as bad as Tropical Storm Fay we faced in 2007 during our time in Florida. R slept through the typhoon and we were on lockdown for a day and a half. Even though we are living in industrial strength towers, I am surprised the way the wind whistles through the windows and they really shake during a bad thunderstorm.

Recently, we made a trip to the big city of Fukuoka for a day of shopping with some friends. We rode by bus, subway and train all in one day. The train station was something I could only compare to Grand Central Station in New York City, at  5pm on a Friday of a holiday weekend (this is actually something I experienced during our trip to NYC in 2010). It was packed, and hectic but we all survived!

Subway in FUK. 

I have started a breastfeeding support group here and it meets twice a month. We have a great group of 4-5 mothers that regularly attend and I can only hope it will expand from there. It's great conversation and the kids love to play. I am in the application process to become a La Leche League leader, and the group will head in that direction when I am done. The application process is lengthy and involves a pre-application dialogue over the LLL 10 concepts of motherings and breastfeeding, and requires you nurse for at least a year before submitting the application. I have just finished the dialogue and been formally invited to begin the application process which will include training over breastfeeding related topics. It's my hope that through this, I can help other mothers be successful at breastfeeding because it has been such a rewarding experience for me. Which leads to my next update....

At his 9 month check up, R tipped the scales and by scales I mean he had outgrown the baby scale and needed to sit on a adult scale, at 24.5lbs! He is in size 18 month clothing, and size 5 for shoes. He is my BIG healthy boy! He is scooting all over the house, and pulling up on the furniture. At 9.5 months he got his two front teeth at the same time. Unfortunately he has really bad seasonal allergies just like his dad and the pollen here is really bad. This is a work in progress trying to find him some relief!

He was such a trooper, you would have never known he was getting two teeth in at once!

I am currenly planning his 1st birthday party which is very bittersweet. We are still loving it here, and looking forward to a trip to visit friends in Japan after the holidays.  I am hoping to blog more regularly at some point,  but sometimes it seems there is not enough hours in the day! I am grateful for that because time is flying and N will be home before we know it.