November 18, 2003. Henry is three months old tomorrow! Here's your weekly picture (I swear his last growth spurt went entirely toward "eyes"):

And here's a bonus picture, showing him doing one of his favorite activities, chewing on his hand:

Dave worked super hard all weekend in the new house. I'm so excited about how nice it's going to be! I'm trying not to get too obsessed about paint colors and that sort of thing. Especially also since I'm sure it's annoying for Dave when he's patching all the plaster cracks and I'm babbling on about various shades of yellow (basically emphasizing that Dave's doing all the hard work). I'll post before and after pictures when we have afters.

November 13, 2003. So...Dave and I are officially homeowners! The closing on our new house was this afternoon. It's so exciting, and, at the same time, terrifying. We have so much we want to do in the house, and hopefully before we move in. I'm not sure how much we can really get done. We'd love to do the walls and the floors, but there's a ton of work that goes in to getting these old plaster walls ready for paint. And the floors are creaky and some of the floorboards might need to be replaced before they're refinished. But we're not sure. Who knows? So we need to get up to speed with the whole language of remodeling and talk to some people who know what they're doing to see what they can do for us. It's all pretty overwhelming. But exciting, still. I think it's just that tonight we're still in the shell-shocked, overwhelmed, state.

I have to say though that the whole house-buying experience was pretty painless. You all know that I'm not really one to endorse much on this website, but I have to wholeheartedly recommend Homebound Mortgage. The rate they gave us was absurdly low, they had practically no fees, and the person I worked with, Mark Antell, was incredibly helpful and responsive. We had gotten a lot of flak about going with an internet mortgage company, and in the end, both realtors and our closing attorney were singing their praises.

Ok, off to learn how to repair a plaster ceiling, cracks in plaster walls, repoint bricks, fix holes in wood floors, abate lead paint, and insulate an attic. Yikes.

November 12, 2003. Last Friday (the 7th) was Dave and my fifth wedding anniversary. In case you don't know, the fifth anniversary is the "wooden" anniversary. Dave and I started giving the traditional anniversary gifts with the first anniversary, and now we can't stop. It's fun! I gave Dave a wooden picture frame with four photos of Henry in it, and he gave me...this!

Most hilarious anniversary gift ever! The best part about this wooden cow is that it's on a spring, and you hold it up and the cow jumps up and down for what seems like hours. And it's a really good spring, so it really does look like the cow is jumping of his own accord. We keep trying to show the cow to Henry, but he always ends up looking at the hand holding the spring, and not at the cow. Babies! Whadda they know?

November 5, 2003. A few people have asked me if Henry ever cries. Yes, he does. See:

My mom says that she thinks Henry looks exactly like Dave when he cries. When Henry cries, that is, not Dave. I couldn't see it before, but now, looking at this photo, I can. Something in the cheeks/eyebrows. Though that looks like my nose. Oh, who knows! I can't tell who he looks like at all, really.

Just so you know, he calmed down immediately after the above picture was taken:

November 3, 2003. We didn't really get many trick-or-treaters. Maybe three groups. So now we have a lot of mini Nestle Crunches to get through.

Here's your Henry picture for the week: