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