10

Anderson is now into the double digits. Big stuff.

Here are some not-so-exciting firsts:

• Illness. He got his first and second cold this month. Illness has been a bummer in the new year for our family of three. Someone in our family has been sick since Christmas. I think we are on the mend. . .
• Temper Tantrums. Anderson has started doing mild temper tantrums. He will flop backwards, usually hitting his head on the ground and crying hysterically when something doesn't go his way. We are usually taking away something he can't have. I hate object permanence.

Exciting Advancements:

• Friends. Anderson and I spent a weekend in Sacramento with a group of 13 women, Joey and Bear. He was an awesome traveller, even driving up to Portland to fly down to Sacramento. Anderson's Great Auntie Jo got to snuggle him before she took us to the airport. And, to my joy, Anderson slept the entire drive up and did very well on the flight. Here is the most recent photo of Anderson, Joey and Bear. Anderson could not help but attack Joey. Not sure why. . . but it was pretty funny. Bear awkwardly looked away so as not to choose sides. Good move, Bear.
• 
• "Cruising." Anderson is shuffling along the coffee table, couch and ottomans. We just bought a little walker for him, so he can walk around the house. He is definitely interested in walking now, and it's a bit scary. . .
• "Blah." He is talking a lot these days. It mostly sounds like "blah, blah, blah," which also sometimes sounds like he is making fun of us talking. . . Every now and again it sounds like "Mama."
• Food. Although nothing brings him as much joy as the crackle of the Cheerios bag, Anderson is also enjoying feeding himself ultra-steamed carrots, peas, and tofu.
• Two more teeth. Our little teething freak has been holding steady with six teeth for a while, but now he has two more bottom teeth coming in to make it eight.
• Playing. He loves his toys these days. Some of his favorite games are "Destruction"--this is when I put a bunch of toys on our coffee table or ottoman and he mechanically (but not methodically) knocks them all off. Eugene has had a delightfully dry winter, and Anderson has taken to swinging at our local park. We joined an indoor playground co-op that has been a lot of fun for Anderson to crawl around in (and fun for me to take him to a completely baby-proofed environment), and Anderson loves the cars and trains there.
• Signing. We have been showing him how to sign and just this week Anderson started signing "more" with his cute little hands.

Mixed Advancements

• The Arm Reach. He does this mostly cute thing wear he stretches out his hand as far as he can to demonstrate he wants (to him needs) something. So it's pretty cute when he reaching for us or the swing at the park. It is less cute when he reaches for things likes knives. . .then he gets pretty upset that his tense arms won't magically bring him the desired item.
• Mom-a-holic. The "attached" stage has arrived. He watches my every move and gets upset when he is not with me. Leaving him is getting harder and harder. However, when I come home there is nothing like his speedy crawl right to my feet and cuddle once he's in my arms.

Ready for a walk in his "Rocky Balboa" outfit.

Niner

At nine months, Anderson is everywhere. There used to be a day when I felt like all I did was sit on the couch and nurse all day long, but now I get so excited to sit still for 15 minutes, because most of the day, I am chasing after his little busy body

Anderson is. . .

• Crawling faster than ever, and doesn't seem to be showing a huge interest in walking at this point, which is just fine.
• Able to lower himself without getting hurt from standing at the coffee table, chair or whatever he can reach.
• Worships the dishwasher.
• Chases the dog--she tolerates him.
• "Playing" with other kids.
• Enjoying toys.
• Liking being in the stroller for longer walks.
• Babbling all day long.
• Eating lots of solids (whole avocados and pears in one sitting--he adores Cheerios)
• Sleeping pretty well and night, but his naps are regressing a bit. . . just when they were getting better!
• Loving to read books.
• Reaching the light switch in his room from his crib when he supposed to be napping (see photo below). There is nowhere else for the crib to go, so we're stuck.
• Whining more when things don't go his way.
• Not hating the car like he used (this is definitely the highlight of this list for his parents)

First Christmas

We spent a great Christmas in Woodland with our family. It was so fun to have almost everyone in the same place, and Anderson got to meet some uncles and cousins for the first time. As expected he was particularly fond of the ribbons, paper and boxes, but he is having a lot of fun with

Opening presents with Dad

Tasting presents

Sitting with Grandpa, who does bear a seasonally appropriate resemblance to Santa Claus.

Cousins!

With Auntie Rhody

Cousin Catalina--they loved each other, but there were some bites here and there. . .mostly from Anderson.

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