Clark Griswold Meets Charlie Brown

I am partnering with many Americans when I say that this is going (read: needs) to be a lean year for the Wirth family, so when my boss (who is also my parent's neighbor) offered for us to go onto her property and cut down a Christmas tree, we jumped on that train. We dropped Anderson off for some quality time with his grandparents and we headed into the woods. Oddly enough, I have never done this. We always went to a tree lot to buy one. Court has only done this as a kid, so it was a married first for us. The days are short up here, so we were fighting daylight, as you can see from this picture of my big, strong man chopping down our tree:

As we learned from Clark Griswold, trees look small in the woods, ours was 13 feet tall, and we had to cut it down to 8, which wasn't too tough to do. Once we got it to the right height, we schlepped it home:

Here she is in the nude. It is the greenest tree we've ever had! The "V" shape the branches have works nicely, because with ornaments the branches are almost normal. She isn't the most robust tree, but we love her.

All dressed up for the season (she has an angel on now, but you can imagine):

We hope you are all enjoying this beautiful season.

Eight is a lot of Months

Eight Months Old

Anderson

Crawls everywhere

Pulls himself up on anything shorter than 30 inches

Sleeps more at night (hallelujah)

Naps poorly (still)

Loves eating

Shys away from strangers

Laughs a lot

Plays with toys, but wires, dust, and outlets are his favorites

Adventures in Home Improvement

For the first time we are living in a home that we own. I have to say, it does feel different. Our (very) little house is charming. It was built in 1918, so there are a lot of quirks. But, as Court's architect dad told us, it has good bones. When we bought it, we knew that we were going to want/need to make some changes and we are currently nearing the end of these changes. Early on Court coined a phrase that we have used throughout our adventures it is "sweat equircise," it is a verb and it means "the act of getting a work-out while putting sweat equity into ones home." Take that, Webster.

Here are some things we have learned about home improvement:

• It is very useful to have a loving, caring handy-person who will come alongside you to help. This person was my dad. He has poured hours of his life into this house. If we sell it, we owe him a percentage, no question.
• Get a lot of quotes all at the same time, or else you will be waiting far too long to get the work done.
• Craigslist--with ample reference, ID, and background checks, --can be a good resource for tradespeople.
• Don't tile yourself--it's worth it to pay a professional
• Do paint yourself. It's not that hard. And we are not very talented in this department.
• Landscaping makes a big difference.
• Old houses are wonderful, but they can be very cold.
• Shop sales at hardware stores.

We have learned a lot more, but these are most of them. Today we had the electrician replace our old ("knob and tube") wiring and, I must say, that I am glad to have this adventure coming to a close. We are very grateful that we were able to make some of the changes that we wanted to.

Here are some photos:

Kitchen with the first layer of wall panelling torn down

Kitchen with new drywall--it is now a nice, textured yellow.

Beth after having torn down the quasi-rotten drywall behind the brown formica surround that was once our shower. Yes, I was wondering how this was all going to work.

Freshly tiled shower

Here are some shots of the house from the outside after our first snow.

Happy Christmastime!

Seven

Seven Months Today!

Monumental events in the seventh month of Anderson's life

He has. . .

• His sixth tooth coming in (a dental prodigy of sorts).
• Wiggled/army crawled/belly flopped his way to almost any destination (in the house, of course).
• Slept eight hours straight two times (we are holding out for more of these nights).
• Enjoyed the Giants winning the World Series.
• Witnesses the Ducks ranked #1 for the first time ever (his parents are in sports utopia).
• Been on a plane.
• Dressed up for Halloween.
• Experienced the joy of swinging.
• Survived his first fall off a bed (that one was mostly my fault, but Anderson isn't without blame--I told him he wasn't allowed to do that).
• Seen the leaves change into brilliant fall colors.

A couple other shots:

Our house with our pumpkins out front

Reading on the walk. . .

He Doesn't really drink out of that yet, but it's been a fun toy

Halloween Chaos

I went to a mom group for a meal and mom chatter, and someone thought it would be a good idea to dress everyone up in their costumes and take a photo. . .it was madness. The best costume, hands down, was a little guy dressed like Rod Blagojevich. He had a tie and a wig on. Incredible. Anderson, the skeleton on the end, is barely visible in the group shot.

Clearly unsure of this situation. . . .

Miro (aka Rod) is 7th from the left

Santa Barbara

We got to visit Santa Barbara a couple weekends ago for a whirlwind wedding trip to see Bdog and Meg tie the ol' knot. We had a blast. Anderson did amazingly well on all of the flights, and Santa Barbara is just as beautiful as when we left. I cannot believe we got to live there for ten years. I wish the weekend would have lasted a bit longer, but we felt really lucky to have such a great trip down to Anderson's birthplace.

Anderson got to see his friend Kalae (whose last name is Anderson). Kalae gave Anderson lots of kisses, but we couldn't quite catch it on film.

Auntie Layne!

Anderson and Shane at the wedding

Anderson's wedding outfit. . .sure some thought he was a girl, but he and we are confident in his masculinity.

Anderson and his dad at the beach

Thomas and Ramona enjoying the beach

Beautiful beach day

Anderson on the (very clean, I am sure) ground at SFO

Other highlights were:

Visiting Nordhoff, where Court used to work.

Seeing my wonderful friends and students at Anacapa.

Eating at some of our favorite places.

Staying with Father Jeff and Nancy.

Walking on our beach.

Dudes

Another visit with the dudes. Here are the three boys Joey, Anderson, and Bear at four, six, and two months. Bear is justifiably dubious of Anderson. They still don't really know that one another exists. . . .but one of these days they will be having a heck of a time.

Half of One Year

Dear Anderson,

You are six months old today, and I can hardly believe it. I feel so lucky to have you as a son. I think you are starting to know that I am your mom, and that I would do practically anything for you. I love it when you reach out both of your hands, squeeze my cheeks, draw my face toward yours, and then you kind of try to bite my nose, but I think it's more like a kiss. You get this look of elation that makes my heart overflow with joy and love for your innocence. I also love seeing you try to start crawling--you are so close. As of today your butt was really in the air and I thought there was a slight chance that you would actually gain the right coordination, but those legs just shot right out again. You do a very good job moving backward off your blanket and onto the floor where you usually find something gross to put in your mouth, and you also do a good job of eating and digesting paper--it's always interesting to see what you ate in your diaper. Your motor skills are coming right along; you are not quite ready for the ol' pen and paper yet, but you are great at passing toys from one hand to the other (very impressive). Sitting up is another resume-worthy skill of yours, you do still topple over every now and again, but it's nothing your backward-army-crawl can't get you out of.

You have eaten rice cereal, butternut squash, pears, and bananas (the last seems to be your favorite). I am reading Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions, and she says that feeding a baby is "like filling a hole with putty--you get it in and then you sort of shave off all the excess around the hole and gob it back in, like you're spackling." She has helped me feel pretty normal these days. I think the solids might be helping you sleep better, but, my son, that is still an area of improvement for you. Seriously, why can't you sleep as well at 6 months as you did at 6 weeks? This issue occasionally turns me into a crazy lady. Don't worry, I will continue being nice to you, but your dad sure gets the brunt of my sleepiness. Poor guy. You could also work on your behavior in the car. It just can't be that bad, and we'd love to drive more places.

You make these incredible grunts of intense fascination. You will grab a teething ring and grunt so your face turns red (I usually remind you to breathe in these moments), then you will smash the ring about as if it's not doing exactly what you want it to. I can't tell if you are frustrated, fascinated, or constipated, but when the episode is over you are usually quite happy (and your pants are not the least bit full). It makes me think of all these parents who say, "You know he's been like this from day one." Well, when you are at "day one" you can't really tell what these little intense grunts might mean about your personality, but I have a feeling that we might be telling this grunting story about you some day explaining your intense focus on your doctoral dissertation that you will be completing at Yale or Harvard that will surely bring about world peace, or helping starving children in the developing world, but no pressure, son.

Every day I enjoy and get to know you more and more. Being a mom is the hardest thing I have ever done, but you make it pretty worthwhile. Happy six month birthday, my sweet boy.

Love,

Your mama.

Tummy Time

Future Talk Show Host?

Dunsmuir Fun

We recently went to one of Court's favorite places in the whole world--his family's cabin in Dunsmuir, which is near Shasta. We met up with Grandpa, Grammie, Aunt Carrie, Uncle Rob, and cousins Erin and Niko. The weather was toasty, but we had an awesome time.

Erin and Niko in front of the bridge

Koala Anderson climbing a tree

The beautiful Sacramento River.

Anderson and Auntie Carrie in front of Mossbrae Falls.

Erin could not get enough of holding her baby cousin, and Niko was so sweet with him too.

A little hike along the river.

Five Big Ones

Months, that is.

Anderson is five months today, and he took in his very first Duck Football game (season opener against New Mexico, and the Ducks won 72-0, a little sad really. . .)

Here is the boy at five months:

Anderson. . .

Has his two bottom teeth coming in, and his top two are just under the surface (in the painful way).

Is rolling from his back to his stomach, then gets frustrated because he can't get back over.

Flirts with all the ladies who smile at him.

Grabs for everything, and puts it in his mouth upon contact.

Tickles easily.

Loves animals.

Smiles when we read books.

A Form of Torture. . .

According to the United Nations, sleep deprivation is a form of torture. And, after last night, it makes a lot of sense to me why this is the case. I did a little reading and allegedly it works a little like this: the torturer will deprive their prisoner of sleep for a long time, give them a taste of sleep, then wake them up and demand (probably again) the information they want. I am not really implying that what I experienced is anywhere near this bad, but I do understand why this torture would make one confess to a crime (that they had or hadn't) committed after a long while of not sleeping.

Anderson used to be a great sleeper (5-6 hours at a time), then he turned four months and he realized that if he cried he would get soothed back to sleep--clever little suckers, these babies. So, last night he slept the worst he has slept in his life; he woke up ever hour. As I write this, I am in a haze of delirium, and there is a little buzzing headache that will not go away. I think all new moms are familiar with this feeling. So, I decided to ask my torturer his thoughts on my state and this is what he had to say (excuse my dorky mom-talk):

I guess I can't stay upset for too long. I hope you are all getting some sleep.

Zen Baby

Anderson is lucky to have a number of very stylish people in his life (much more so than his mother). His Auntie Jos has a pretty incredible clothing line--all eco-friendly--and Anderson got a cutting edge onesie. I think the rest of the line will be coming out Spring and Summer of 2011. In the mean time, Anderson will be the coolest four month old around.

Forced Into Bestfriendship

All boys!

Meet Bear (10 days old), Anderson (four months old), and Joseph (almost three months). Joseph was the only one who cared enough about the photo-shoot to stay awake. I think, once these guys realize each other exists they will be best friends (with a little effort from their moms). I cannot believe how lucky I am to have two friends with boys Anderson's age.

First Visitors

We had our first visitors to Eugene yesterday. One of my former students, Ryan, and his family stopped through town to pay us a visit on their big summer roadtrip. We met them at our favorite local coffee shop, Sweet Life, that is just a few blocks away from our house (where we will be living come September 1st). It was a lot of fun to see Santa Barbara faces here in the great Northwest.

Four Months Old Today!

Happy Four Month Birthday, Anderson Eliot!

He is grabbing for lots of toys and checking out his world more than ever. In fact, I may have to start feeding him in a dark room because he twists and turns to catch whatever new sight may (or may not) be nearby. He is fascinated by our weird little dog, Maggie, as well as Napoleon, my parent's black and white goat. He often looks longingly at his dad.

Home Again

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring


Will be to arrive where we started


And know the place for the first time."

~T.S. Eliot

It's interesting to be back where I grew-up. There are all sorts of new things to notice being an adult in this place loaded with childhood memories. It has changed a bit---there are good changes (a budding local beer culture) and bad changes (the giant Target across from the giant Wal-Mart). My eyes are drawn to different things now (is our house in the right school district?) than they were ten years ago. Naturally I had a lot of complaints being a kid in this town, but I am here by choice now as a mother and wife. Few days have gone by that I have not thought of Eliot's line at the beginning of this post. I really have arrived where I started and seem to be knowing it again for the first time.

Despite the fact that when Anderson is sixteen, I will have to explain to him why we move from beautiful Santa Barbara to beautiful (but very wet) Eugene, I am excited to continue growing with my family in this place.