Leif & Lannay - Germany - May 1980 - Age 5

From Charlottesville, Virginia, we moved to Germany in the summer of 1977. We first lived in an army housing area in Furth, near Nurnberg, for a year. That housing area no longer exists. Peter W. was Officer in Charge of the Nurnberg Law Center at the time.

Then we moved to the village of Sachsen bei Ansbach for two years. We were fortunate that Lannay came to visit us there in May 1980, just before we moved to Japan. This photo of Lannay and Leif was taken in the living room of our house there, and they are sitting in an antique rocking chair that was from my mother's parents' house in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

Leif was so happy to see Lannay again, and he still was willing to cuddle up with her like with no one else.

Leif & Lannay - May 1977 - Age 2 Years 4 Months

Leif had a special affection for his Aunt Lannay, my sister. He was not a very affectionate child, to me and his dad. When he was small, his favorite form of showing affection to me was to wait until I was sitting, or down on the floor and take a runnig leap at my back. But Lannay was different.

Leif got to know Lannay when we moved to Charlottesville, Virginia when he was a year-and-a-half old, and during the year we lived there, she came to see us often. Leif took to her in an instant. He loved her long blond hair and he would snuggle up with her and cuddle in ways he never did with us.

This photo was taken in Charlottesville in May 1977 when he was a two years and four months old.

Leif & Peter Anthony - Kyoto, Japan, Spring 1982 - Ages 7 & 13

Leif and his older brother were close and spent a lot of time together until Peter Anthony left for the Air Force Academy in the summer of 1987, and most of the time they got along well, but not always. Sometimes Peter, like most older brothers, delighted in teasing Leif or doing small things just to get a rise out of him, such as extending his right arm full length and pointing at Leif. Just that, just pointing. It drove Leif nuts.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "Mom, Peter's bugging me," I probably could take the family on a trip. One time, Peter did something that made Leif so angry that he grabbed a chain with a bicycle lock on it and chased Peter, swinging it. Whether he would actually have hit his brother with it, I don't know, although I doubt it. That was after he had the outburst in kindergarten and mostly had his temper under control . . . except when it came to frustration when drawing or building models, and then he'd crumple paper or, in extreme cases, break the model.

It was the usual sibling relationship. I remember when Leif was two-and-a-half and we were on the plane from the USA to Germany. They amused each other for quite some time, and then Peter got tired of it and started to get annoyed. They began squabbling, which annoyed me. Of course, it was primarily boredom at work. They were confined and ran out of things to do. Peter A. said to me, "Why does HE have to be here?" and added some comment about why we couldn't just leave him.

It wasn't long after that that Leif fell asleep. I thought Peter A. would be glad, that now he didn't have to put up with his little brother, but no, in a few minutes he was asking me, "When is he going to wake up?"

I said, "I thought you wanted to be rid of him. Now you are. Why do you want him to wake up?"

His answer was so telling, "I'm bored. There's no one to fight with."

When we got to Germany and moved into quarters in Nurnberg, Peter was eight-and-a-half and Leif was two-and-a-half. Peter quickly started making big deal about Leif not coming into his room. One day, he shoved Leif out and Leif got so upset he started throwing his toys at Peter's door. (This was before the kindergarten incident when he decided no more toy throwing.) But then, not long after that, the two of them were happily playing together and had constructed a big spaceport and city with all their toys.

By the time we moved to Japan in 1980, and Leif was five years old and precocious, they could do more together, though they each had their own friends.

These photos were taken in Kyoto in the spring of 1982 when Peter Anthony was 13 and Leif was 7. They were having a good time pretending and posing, play fighting, and making up imagination games. You can see the fake fist "fight" followed by the very genuine affection. There was a lot of that, and we loved to see it.

Leif - July 1976 - 18 months old, With Daddy

These photos were taken in July 1976, shortly before we moved from Manhattan, Kansas to Charlotteville, Virginia. Leif was sharing a snack with his dad. You can see Peter W. in his "fatigues," the old army uniform that was a pain in the backside to starch and iron. He was a captain in the JAG (Judge Advocate General's) Corps, and stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, where Leif was born.

Peter had been a chief trial counsel (like a chief prosecutor) and had become a magistrate judge at this time.

Leif was not a particularly affectionate child, except to my sister, Lannay. His usual form of affection for me, other than wanting to be held and cuddled, was to wait until I was down on my knees for some reason and take a flying leap at my back.

As he grew up, he gave the best bear hugs . . . but only when I asked him for one. Then he didn't seem to want to let go, so maybe it wasn't that he wasn't affectionate, just that he felt it needed to be "invited."

But here, he gave his daddy a sweet kiss.

I loved seeing moments like this!