Crawling is so passé

 I mentioned before that Anna has begun to walk (at 13 months, almost on the dot). This means no more crawling. Just lots and lots of steps all over the place, often carrying things, funny stand-up positions, and even an hilarious "old man walk." Her horizons have really expanded, as we've always thought (hoped) they would.

 Ramont bought some sweet toys for a few dollars at an auction this week. One is the coasting bike shown above, another was a scooter, and by far the biggest hit: the plastic mower modeled by Jonathan here. He could hardly sleep the first night, asked for it first thing the next morning, and still logs miles onto it each day (mostly inside). What gets him up in the morning now, though, is the Advent calendar. Not so much the spiritual significance as the chocolate inside each little window. Now he wakes up exclaiming "5!", or whatever day it happens to be.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have some friends visit us from Freeman/North Carolina/Goshen/Ohio/Brazil/Bolivia...Lisa Kauffman and "baby Eli" spent a few hours here, catching up on life since we got to know each other in Santa Cruz at the beginning of this year. What an extraordinary year they've had, which you can read more about on their blog.

I didn't get any nice photos of all of us, but then this photo nicely shows the chaos that three little kiddies under 3 might tend towards.