Have you gone MAD?

According to Forest, it's the most wonderful time of the year: March Madness. After printing out several team logos and spending a couple of evenings recording picks, we helped Ramona fill out the third bracket of her existence (yes, she filled out her first one in utero).

Based on her preference for certain logos, her favorite teams included Vanderbilt (she called the logo "twinkle little star") and University of Illinois (she recognized this logo from Forest's numerous college sweatshirts).

But the winner? Clemson. Every time she saw the logo she cried out, "Hand!" holding her own palm toward the orange paw print.
I later realized that she does something similar when she spots a "don't walk" sign on the other side of a pedestrian crosswalk. I'm not sure if it's a relevant correlation, but at any rate, her bracket quickly fell apart when her team lost in the first round. I guess when it comes to bracketology, a fetus's picks are just as good as, if not better than, a toddler's.

When I think of Japan

Whenever I think of Japan, I generally think of things like this:

or, like this:
or, occasionally, things like this:
I also think about the people and lifestyle that are so familiar to me because, in a sense, I grew up right alongside much of it. Although I have only visited Japan on short trips and never lived there for extended periods of time, my own mother is a native of Japan. She created an environment in my childhood home that very strongly conveyed the spirit of her homeland. To this day I speak to my parents in the Japanese language they taught me, and step away from my American-ness every time I do.

These days, when anyone mentions Japan, all that seems to come to mind are horrific images of destruction with the recent earthquake and tsunami affecting their nation. A week ago, as I tried to watch some of the footage from this calamity, I realized tears were rolling down my cheeks and quickly turned off the news, but was unable to stop sobbing for several minutes. It isn't typical for me to burst into tears at the sight of something sad, but perhaps because of the pregnancy, and perhaps because of emotional ties to this country, oceans away, I felt an unusual sense of sorrow. Thankfully, all of my family and friends in Japan have been kept safe through this event, but my prayers are with those who suffer there.