Bliss

Manu slept for 10 hours straight last night.  Oh, sweet joy!

I never thought I'd be so happy about sleep.  Waking up at 7am and realize that I hadn't been out of my bed since I got into it at 10pm was such a delightful feeling.

What a wonderful early Christmas present!

Optical Illusion

This will blow your mind.  At least it did mine.  Look at the picture of the spinning dancer below.  Which direction is she spinning?



Some people see her spinning clockwise and some counter-clockwise.  Here's the description from Wikipedia:

The Spinning Dancer is a kinetic, bistable optical illusion resembling a pirouetting female dancer. Some observers initially see the figure as spinning clockwise and some counterclockwise. Additionally, some may see the figure suddenly spin in the opposite direction. The illusion derives from an inherent ambiguity from the lack of visual cues for depth.  


 I can only get her to change directions if I stare at the bottom foot.  Even then it takes a while.  Crazy.

4 Months!

Little Manu turned 4 months old on Sunday!  This is what he did to celebrate:

Modeled his new jacket from AJ.

Slept.  (we're working on starting to sleep through the night again, and I think we're really close)

Partied it up with the Samoan ward and our friend Liu.

And for the big finale:

(please excuse my baby-talk voice in this video)

he learned to roll over!  

(unfortunately he rolls over while he's trying to go to sleep and wakes himself up, but I still think it's super cute to watch)

Happy Birthdays

Okay, let's pretend for a moment that today is October 23rd.
Happy Birthday, Nate!  I love you and am so glad that you are a part of my life.

You are an awesome Dad.  I love to watch our Manu when he's with you.  Like father, like son.

I've never seen a prouder, more loving daddy.  Manu and I are so blessed to have you.

You have a great sense of humor.

And you always keep me on my toes.  Thanks for sharing life's greatest adventures with me!  I love you!

And now, let's pretent that it's October 27th.  Manu is three months old now!  We've seen a lot of changes this month:

Manu helping with the laundry.

Manu is now enjoying tummy time!  Hooray!

Manu has also discovered his hands and loves to suck on them and whatever he can grab hold of.

And, he's still our happy little guy!  We love making him laugh with raspberries and silly noises.

We love you, Manu!

Pacific Aviation Museum

Dad, this one's for you.

A few weeks ago, Manu and I had our first big adventure together, just the two of us.  Saturday, September 24th was Smithsonian Magazine's National Museum Day, so many museums offered free admission.  So Manu and I packed up and headed out to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor to see the Pacific Aviation Museum.

When we finally got in to the museum (after a shuttle ride, a diaper change, a feeding, and another diaper change) we saw some great planes.  Dad, I thought of you a lot while I examined the different planes and Manu examined the inside of his eyelids.  So, here's some of the cool stuff we saw:

I didn't get many pictures of the really old planes in the first building because the light was bad.  This one is a F-4F3 Wildcat from the 1940s.

North American F-86E Sabre from 1947.

This is an ultralight plane.  It was tiny!

Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk I (1942)

McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle (1972)

Grumman F-14D Tomcat (1970)

Convair F-102A Delta Dagger (1953)

SH-60-B Seahawk

Some of the planes you could climb up and get into or see up close.  It was a pretty cool museum.  Wish you could have been there, Dad!  Hope you enjoy the photos!  

Mormons and Politics

Yes, that's right.  I'm joining the fray.

First let's take a brief look at the politics side:

There has been a ton of coverage in the news lately about Mitt Romney and how his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints effects his abilities as a potential presidential candidate.  This coverage seems to have exploded in the last few days after Pastor Robert Jeffress declared Mormonism to be a cult.  


There have been some great responses to Pastor Jeffress' ignorant remarks including these articles:


Don't judge candidates by their faith (by CNN's William Bennett.  Thanks for pointing this one out, Katie)


Latter-Day Sins (subtitle: Why don’t we challenge anti-Mormonism? Because it’s the prejudice of our age.)


Anderson Cooper and Robert Jeffress interview (video)

I'm a Mormon.  I may or may not vote for Romney.  If I do, it certainly won't be because we both belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It will be because I like his political stance best.  By the same token, I'm going to give Rick Perry fair judgment based on his politics as well.  I'm not going to discount him as a potential candidate just because he is a member of a different faith.  This is what I'm getting at - it just doesn't matter.

Bennett summed it up well in the first article I linked to by saying, "To the right and left alike, we are in the middle of a grueling presidential campaign season. It behooves us to despise and reject all forms of religious, and racial, bigotry. Politics are about policy and deciding whether a candidate shares your views of the founding principles of this country -- life, liberty, and the rule of law -- which men and women of all different faiths can agree upon."

In the video above, Jeffress is directly confronted about his remarks on Mormons.  Jeffress then explains that by "cult" he meant "theological cult" wherein a church looks to a man instead of a divine figure as the founder of their church.  He also describes the Book of Mormon as a "newer, fresher revelation."

This brings us to the second portion of this post.

I'm a Mormon.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Jesus Christ is the founder of my faith.  Joseph Smith is a prophet just like Moses, Noah, and Abraham.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, my Savior and Redeemer.  I believe the Bible is the word of God.  The Book of Mormon  does not replace the Bible, but is a companion to it.  It is "another testament of Jesus Christ" and witnesses powerfully of His divinity.

If you want to know what it's like to live in China, ask someone who lives there, not someone who only once saw a picture of it.  If you want to know what Mormons believe, ask a Mormon.  We're your friends and neighbors and would welcome your questions.  Ask me, I'm a Mormon.  Or visit mormon.org to learn more.

Foster Botanical Garden

Nate and I have decided that we need to get out and appreciate this beautiful little island we call home before we find ourselves having to leave and never getting to do all we wanted.  (FYI: This is not a moving announcement)  So we've instituted "family days" on Fridays when Nate dosen't have class as days to get out and see stuff together.  

So for our first family day, we went to a botanical garden here in town.  It was beautiful.  Such a lovely piece of nature in this bustling city.

Here we are at the gardens with Buddah.

The orchid garden was my favorite, I didn't even take photos of anything else.  These flowers are amazing!

This one is not an orchid.  It's a bromeliad.  

This is also not an orchid, it's called crown of thorns.  

 There was a random camel at the garden.  So naturally we took pictures with it.