The Rice Paddy Navy

My aunt is a published author! Well, to be fair, she's had numerous articles and pieces published before, but this is her first book. The Rice Paddy Navy: US Soldiers Undercover in China is on sale today. I've been eagerly awaiting its debut!

Her father was deployed to China during World War II. I'm told he had endless stories about his experiences there, and that's how my aunt became interested in the US forces in China.

Here's the book description from my aunt:

An American naval officer, Commander Milton Miles, and a Chinese spymaster, General Dai Li, teamed up in a quest to uproot the Japanese from China in World War II. Initially ordered to gather weather information and intelligence to aid the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet, Miles joined Dai to form the Sino-American Cooperative Organization. They built a network of military training camps, transforming Chinese peasants, pirates, and police officers into guerrilla soldiers and saboteurs.

My father, Chief Ship Fitter Charles L. Kush, was among those deployed to China as an instructor. He joined his students in the field to “set off explosives and run like hell.”

The Rice Paddy Navy features some well-known characters like “Wild Bill” Donovan, founder of the OSS, “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell who carved out the Burma Road, Claire Chennault, father of the Flying Tigers, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. But the real heroes of the story are young navy men and ordinary Chinese from all walks of life. It is a story of adventure, friendship, political rivalry, and tragedy.

I'm so excited about her work, and I'm excited to tell my readers about it, too. So, please, if there's a history buff in your family or circle of friends, or someone you know who is a total bibliophile, send them this book! It would make a nice Christmas gift (hint, hint!). If you can't find it at your local bookstore, it's for sale here on amazon.com. There's also a Kindle edition!

Birthday Books

Every year, for Oliver's birthday, I make him a book. For his first birthday, I wanted to make him a book of expressions because babies enjoy looking at faces. I took photos of Andrew being happy and me being mad and Oliver being sleepy.

I thought about just gluing photos to construction paper and putting the pages in a binder. Then, it occurred to me: I can just make a photo book on Shutterfly and turn it into a children's book for Oliver! It was so much easier and looked great. Plus, if you sign up for their emails, you can sometimes get big discounts, like 40% off photo books.

A page from his first birthday book:

For his second birthday, I decided to create a book of all his favorite things, along with the name of each underneath its picture to (hopefully) get him to start recognizing some simple words. I took photos of his favorite stuffed animal, Monkey, along with a photo of a set of keys, a car, pasta, Dad, and me. It's still one of his favorite books! Admittedly, the pages of that one are getting torn now. I appreciate the fact that I can reorder the book to have a new copy, as Shutterfly saves each project you make to your account.

A page from his second birthday book:

This year, I made him a book about baking cookies! Baking is basically Oliver's favorite thing ever. I took pictures of him using the mixer in addition to pictures of Andrew and me using the oven and cracking eggs and such. There's even a photo of Jo  helping in the baking process! I know Oliver will love this. I kept the sentences super simple to (maybe) help him read.

I think these are such cute birthday gifts.  They're so personal, and they're something he can have forever.  I need to get busy making a birthday book for Jo!  I think I might make a face book of people she'd recognize.

Here's the Shutterfly preview of Oliver's 3rd birthday book.  I've noticed the preview takes a long time to load and sometimes times out.  You can just click the link below the image to get a preview on the Shutterfly website:

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love Shutterfly's award-winning photo books. Try it today.

Isn't Pig Won't Naughty?

Aunt Julie bought Oliver a book last Christmas called, "Isn't Pig Won't Naughty?" Andrew and I enjoyed reading it to him while making different voices for "Pig Will" and "Pig Won't." It has now moved up the list to being his favorite book. If Oliver and I are playing in his room, he'll crawl over, grab it off the shelf and hand it to me, saying, "More!" I'll read it once, declaring, "The End!" when it's over. He hands it back and shouts, "More!" Rinse and repeat five times.

Oliver woke up at 5am this morning and played with Dad. At 6am, Andrew brought him to me to nurse. Oliver fell asleep in our bed next to us for an hour. When he woke up, he immediately crawled out of our bed and over to the stack of books on the floor from the night before. He selected, "Isn't Pig Won't Naughty?" and handed it to me. In case that wasn't a strong enough hint, he said, "More." I read it six times before Andrew was able to distract him enough to keep me from having to read it a seventh.

Pictured: I'm reading the book to Oliver, and then I set it down on the floor. This last picture is of him about to say, "More," while handing me the book.