Holding pattern

In many ways it feels like we're in a holding pattern these days. Most of our MCC Bolivia colleagues are out of town/country at the moment, so there's not much activity around the office. We're holding down Centro Menno until Willmar and Hannah return after their 10-week home leave. And we have only three weeks left in the country before we return to the U.S. and begin our next life. We're not very motivated to go out and be adventurous. All this to acknowledge that our blog posts are and have been rather boring. It goes without saying that our kids, with their ever-evolving personalities and achievement levels, are the main excitement in our life right now. So here are a few word and photo snapshots of 2 1/3 years old and 8 months old.

First, Anna has been joining us for meals in her highchair (photo above). Meals have nicely become a full-family event. This is especially great for me, in that I can feed her and eat my own food at the same time. I've been feeding her solids rather differently than I did Jonathan. Whereas he ate mainly pure(ed) fruits and vegetables for most of his first year, she eats pretty much what we do, and lots of it - stir fry, pasta, curry, cheese, eggs, beans, lentils, chicken, etc. What's nice about this is that I don't need to prepare all kinds of "special" foods for her - although there are some cubes of pureed fruits/vegs in the freezer to add to her meal if necessary or to cool something off quickly. Also, preparing meals now is quite like a stint I did in a  nursing home kitchen, in terms of three different forms of each food: the original meal, then a plate for Jonathan that can cool off and be cut into chunks, and then puree a bit of everything for Anna.


Jonathan is at a great life stage right now (actually, each stage so far as been the best one yet). He has become a chatterbox. While this can get a bit, well, exhausting, it is also fascinating. We're seeing the world anew through a 2-year old's mind and words. And it's extra interesting because he is so verbose in all three languages. The funniest sayings all seem to be in Low German, so I won't bore you with those here.

One other characteristic right now is that he is quite solicitous of his little sister. Yes he will often love her a bit fiercely (luckily she seems on course to become a bruiser - very tough, she is), but generally he pro-actively and re-actively wants to make her happy. We are lucky indeed.

At eight months old, Anna keeps us hopping. She is generally content...as long as she is doing something. This is asking a bit much of parents who like to sit quietly and read or take a nap after lunch. But it also means that she is no boring blob of a baby, and for that we're grateful!

If the weather is nice, we spend the late afternoon outside on the lawn. Anna loves grabbing fistfuls of grass and examining the blades, or eating them. Meanwhile Jonathan plays in the sandbox or rides all over the MCC yard on his car (trike).

And of course she's reading. Didn't your baby at eight months?

Anna's schedule has become slightly more predictable. She generally sleeps an hour in the morning, sometimes half an hour in the afternoon, and at night from 5.30pm until about 5.00am (with a few meals in between).

For the first year or so of Jonathan's life, we kind of neglected to read him books. We were seriously worried that he would never be interested in books or learn to read. But now he cannot hear enough stories in the day. The best reading session is before bed. Here I'm reading to him one of the daily requirements: Danny and the Dinosaur (dinosaur in Low German is still dinosaur).

Since it's been raining so much, we spend a lot of time playing inside. Here's a big load on "Opa's big tractor."

And that, aside from hugging water bottles to stay warm, is about all that's new in the Harder Schrock household this week.