Anna at one

Anna turned one year old this week (on the 22nd). This post will be a bit of a photo dump, as they say, of what she's up to at this stage in her busy life.

A few highlights in words as well:

Eating: Pretty much everything, but especially loves cheese. She also drinks mama milk 4-5 times a day and nothing during the night (hooray!). She's pretty small, but at 10 months she was at least on the height/weight chart for her age.

Sleeping: From 7.30pm to 6am quite well, usually a nap from 9.00am to 10.15 or 10.30, and if we're lucky, another half or one hour in the early afternoon. Altogether we're quite relieved that she sleeps so well - the early months didn't suggest it would turn out this way! The photo above shows Anna with her birthday quilt from Oma Harder (idea comes from here).

Movement: Anna is one fast and efficient crawler, as well as "walker" while holding on to something (like a table, couch, chair, etc). She, however, wants to go much faster and further, so we end up being her mule for much of the day. Lately she's tested balancing just on her own feet and even taking a step or two before collapsing in a heap of excitement.

Voice: The new favorite form of communication is screeching - out of excitement, indignation, boredom, you're-forgetting-about-me-for-two-seconds-fear, and other. Anna is very, very vocal. She makes animal sounds/squeeks when she sees one of the barn cats or any animal in a book.

Sibling: Jonathan and Anna often play very well, very amusingly together. They are close enough in age (19 months apart) to have similar play interests even now: hide and seek, wrestling, pulling off each others' socks, rolling around, and pushing toy tractors. And then their similar interests become a problem, since J. inevitably wants, no, needs exactly what Anna has. Up until now he could usually get it with impunity (unless Mama Bear was around), but just this week Anna bit him in response. It was darkly amusing to witness. Jonathan is still the one person with whom Anna will easily pull out her belly laugh, in response to just about anything he does, especially if he's throwing something.

   

Play: Anna doesn't have much fear when it comes to getting up on things (like the trike), and loves to be in motion....

...or figuring out how it works.

The leaves have been an exciting play thing this fall for the kids,

as are clothes pins.

When tomato season was in full swing, Anna and Jonathan would both eat half of the picked tomatoes before I could bring them inside. Recently Anna found some in the fridge door and attacked it.

Here is Oma with Anna's birthday quilt.

Anna loves to look at picture books - much earlier than Jonathan did. Here she's wearing her beautiful sweater made by Barbara Nelson Gingerich.

The book under examination is a Bible story book in Low German, which was a gift from Helga Fehr and family in Bolivia.

At the piano. And when she's at the piano, no one else is allowed to touch the keys.

And here are a few of my favorite photos from cleaning up leaves one beautiful fall afternoon.

(the Gator belongs to the folks whose yard we're renting - we're that lucky!)

Birthday party

Hard as it is to imagine, our little baby is going to be one year old next week! We were lucky enough to have both sets of (her) grandparents close by, and so celebrated Anna's birthday on Sunday. Here are a few photos from the special day.

Anna is a worker, always wanting to do something with her hands - take apart, put together, make sounds, etc. She isn't walking yet, but seems to be always standing.

Not the greatest family photo of all time (in fact, might just make it onto this crazy site).

I still can't believe this happened, but Anna got her own full-fledged piece of cake, complete with about 1/2 cup of flaming pink frosting. She can't quite believe, either, that she just ate all that.

Anna has a penchant for lifting her legs rather gracefully from time to time. Had she been born into a Russian family 20 years ago, I'm sure she'd have been put in the Olympic gymnastic or Moscow ballet program. But here she is, destined to be a table-top dancer. Or rather, a farmer. With Grandma Schrock and Opa Harder.

All the attention on Anna (at least for a few moments) was a bit hard on Jonathan. Here he is, coping. With both his and Anna's new 4-wheelers, I might add.

Once done eating, the kiddies moved into the living room, and demonstrated once again how well they do actually play together. For now, Jonathan is usually the antagonist (see evidence above), but we're pretty sure it will become pretty even before too long.

And by the end of a good evening, just plumb tuckered out.

Wisconsin

Last week Ramont's parents arrived from Harrisonburg, VA to spend almost a week with us. The time with them was so good, though a bit too short, in part because we took a road trip in the middle of their visit. For the weekend we drove six hours with them to northern Wisconsin to visit Ramont's grandmother and aunt and uncle. Grandma Schrock will turn 93 the day after our Jonathan turns 3 (in March), and is still living in their original farm house. The photos here show some views of it from a tractor/wagon tour of the farm and woods we took one beautiful, cold autumn morning - led by Ramont's aunt Rita.

Attention Russian Mennonites: does this not look like a scene straight out of And When They Shall Ask?

(whew, no bandits in those woods.)

Finished!

Last week my dad and Ramont finished combining - about a month earlier than usual (thanks to the ongoing drought over much of the U.S.). Overall things went very well, with higher than expected yields, and with little trouble on most of the equipment (the trucks, well, that's another story). The photo above shows the last rows on the last field - beans near Butterfield. If one could zoom in, you would see Opa driving, Oma serving mate, and Jonathan sitting on the floor between them with big eyes taking it all in.


The photos below are in somewhat random order (since it takes so long to get them all how I want them). Here Jonathan logs the miles on his wheels.

My mom and I (and the kids) brought most noon meals out to the field. This was always a highlight of our day, for various reasons. Jonathan was usually too distracted to eat, and usually got at least one round in the combine before going home to a nap with sweet dreams of driving large farm equipment.

Jonathan waits patiently for his ride.

The last field, with three drivers.

Dad, figuring it all out.

Anna also enjoyed all the outdoor time.

I got to take a few loads to the elevator, and luckily didn't get stuck in the cab this year and have to climb out of the window while at the elevator.

A rare terere break on the yard, while combining beans on the home place.

Lunch an a very windy day, near Delft. The van provided a good wind shelter when necessary.

What kept 'em going.

Combining at the home place.

Ramont waits for a fill.

Waiting at the elevator (in the yellow cab truck) east of Mountain Lake.

Making plans.

Jonathan going for a ride with Opa.

And Anna searches the sky for rain.

Harvest has begun (sneak preview)

(In the combine with Opa - a daily dream come true.)

En route: Virginia

I should start this post by saying that we are still alive, and that I do plan to continue updating this blog. We are slowly settling into life here and absolutely love it (granted we're still hermits and don't get out much, but we've learned to stay awake past 8pm). The harvest season began last week - very early for southern Minnesota. For Jonathan (and Ramont), this is pure paradise: tractors, trucks, and combines every day. More photos to come on that.

But first, a few snapshots from our week in Harrisonburg, Virginia in early August. We were glad to have the chance to spend time with Ramont's folks and brother, who live there, as well as his visiting sister and her family. It was good to (re)introduce our kids to their grandparents, although they were a bit shell-shocked by the whirlwind of good-byes and hellos over several weeks, and stuck pretty close to us. Thankfully, there will be better opportunity for bonding in October when they come to visit us. One highlight was a beautiful, shiny red Radio Flyer wagon from them. There will be many, many more photos featuring this awesome wagon, as it plays a major role in our daily activities here on the farm.

Uncle Radell was a hit with Jonathan - both for being a fine caballo and for his tractor. The photo below shows a new method being tested of digging potatoes with a one-row plow. It seemed to work well (even with Jonathan driving...). Radell's vegetable fields look amazing again this year.

And Anna learned to crawl in Virginia! It wasn't pretty at first: one leg folded, the other stuck out straight. But she soon got the hang of it, and is now cruising all over the place quite efficiently. (Confessions of a bad parent: the other day as I was getting supper ready, Ramont asked where she was. Under the table playing, I said. Well, no. She had made her way almost to the top of the stairs. The most unusual part was that she hadn't made a sound while doing it.)

And finally, in Virginia we said good-bye to our fellow Bolivia MCCers, traveling companions, friends, and heroes of our children - Andy and Cassie Herringshaw. We probably wouldn't have made it to the U.S. without them (though they would have made it puke-free without us), and we were fortunate to be able to attend re-entry retreat with them AND also hang out with them for a bit in Harrisonburg. Cassie can put Anna to sleep like no one else, and both are just great for Jonathan too. Thanks to them, we even got to take a nap or two during our travels. We're all missing them now, but look forward to a visit in December.

En route: Pennsylvania

We made several stops on our way home from Bolivia. The first was in Akron, PA at MCC headquarters. There we got some sleep after a long trip, tied up some logistical loose ends, and also got to introduce our Anna to Ramont's folks, who drove up from Harrisonburg (and very, very helpfully lent us their car). Another highlight was to visit Lynn and Laurie Longenecker and family in Lancaster. Four years ago we met them at MCC orientation in Akron, flew on the same flight with them to Bolivia, and came to appreciate and immensely enjoy our times with them - including a Christmas in Charagua. How great to see them in their U.S. life, and also to have the most flavorful and fresh meal in their back yard (photo above).

 

Maria Longenecker was a great hostess for (a sometimes unwilling) Jonathan.

We then attended a "re-entry" retreat for workers returning from assignments with MCC, Mennonite Mission Network, Eastern Mennonite Missions, and Virginia Mennonite Missions. It was held at the Black Rock retreat center, not far from Lancaster. The place as uber-air conditioned, which felt both ridiculously cold and nice - nice because it was steamy outside. This photo of Anna is hazy not because it was a warm and fuzzy moment, but because the camera lens had condensation on it. We were waiting to go swimming with the kids, which they both liked a lot.

Several reactions to the retreat.
- It was enjoyable, restful (except for the nights), and the food was incredible.

- It was fascinating to observe how "missionaries" and "development workers" view the world and their roles in sometimes similar, often different ways.

- It was grand to re-connect with a whole group of other Bolivia MCCers with whom we overlapped in the last years.

- It was probably too early to attend this event, as we were so busy snarfing down tasty, rich North American foods that we hadn't yet begun to process some of the bigger issues.

Altogether, we're grateful that MCC offers this for returning workers and that we had the opportunity to attend. Below is a photo of most of the group from a worship service on the last day.

Home

We are home. On Thursday we officially moved into our new house, about five miles north of Mountain Lake, Minnesota. Of course it's not actually our house (we're renting), and it's not new (built in the late 1930s), but it's a pretty amazing set-up. Today it got even better, with a piano moved in and internet hooked up. I will post photos soon, but this is just to say that the blog will continue once we are more settled.