Monday, December 8, 2008

For-real stockings

We finally decided on the stockings we want to have for the next 18+ years. We ultimately chose these:



Mom's is the dancing tree, Dad's is the skiing snowman, and Son's is the canoeing snowmen. They're so athletic!

They are also made of wool, so we are going to have to invest in some serious mothball action for the stockings plus the garland and the tree skirt. Moths are lame! Wait, I mean cedar, not mothballs.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

New car seat

Soren has outgrown his infant carrier so we had to get him a new (convertible) seat for the car (from Amazon, NOT Target). He looked so big in his baby seat, but now he looks like such a peanut in this gigantor. It will hold him up to 65 pounds, which I am assuming is way more than any reasonable car-seat-bound child should weigh.

Now we are ready for all the traveling we have to do in the next few weeks. He was actually totally happy all strapped into his seat in the living room, so hopefully he will also be a bit happier on car trips that last more than 20 minutes. At any rate, he should be way less bored now that he can look out the window.

Only 18 months and 18 pounds to go before he can face forward!

Friday, December 5, 2008

OMG our house is so beige.


We bought a real tree this year, (our first), so as to start out on the right foot with Santa (on behalf of Soren). However, we don't want to just throw up a ton of crappy ornaments from a Bigga-Lots 50-pack or some glittery junk from Target, so we've decided to take our time collecting nice ones (until the good stuff starts rolling in, handmade by Little Man). Real ornaments are pretty expensive, though, so we're waiting until the post-Christmas sales to start collecting. For this year, we are just going with lights, hand-strung garland of felted-wool balls, and this moose puppet as the tree topper (which I think is pretty cute!).

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin



Soren had a fab time in Wisconsin. His Aunt and Grandmother spoiled him silly and he was enamored with his Uncle Rich, and he got to hang out with dogs for the first time. While Patterson ignored him (only after trying to get Soren to play ball and then trying to sit in Soren's lap, both attempts obviously ending in failure) and Josie was scared of him, they were all good and there was no growling, snapping, or toy stealing (well, minimal toy stealing). Riley actually seemed to think Soren WAS a toy, licking him and wagging his tail whenever he went by.



Somehow Soren ended up with more toys than necessary, a new wardrobe, and other various items such as Babe (the best movie ever), so I had to borrow a third suitcase for the flight home. He was a total trooper, receiving lots of compliments from people on both legs of the trip who thought he was an "excellent traveler!" and a "very happy baby!" Whew.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Red-letter day



Soren took his first airplane ride AND sprouted his two top teeth all within a few hours yesterday. He is only mildly bothered by the teeth from what I can tell, and he LOVED the trip, specifically the landing because he was plastered to the window watching the buildings get closer and closer. In fact, it cracked him up for some reason. Unfortunately, his mom left the camera in the car when she removed it from the diaper bag for a last minute backseat change in the airport garage, so we don't have a photo of him on his plane trip. Luckily he has to fly home, so we'll pretend it's the first flight. When Rich gets home tomorrow we'll use his nice camera to take some photos of the teeth, as well. Now Soren has four of those, so he's ready to do some serious eating...

This is closest I got to documenting the baby on his first flight:

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Babycook makes incredible baby food



I didn't think the baby cook would purée vegetables any finer than the food processor, but I was 100% wrong. It makes fluffy, smooth, velvety baby food! It is an impressive machine, for sure, and it contains the mess to a single bowl which is awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone with a baby. Register for this!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Target is mean to little babies and doesn't want them to be safe

Soren and his family are boycotting Target.

This Monday we ordered two "Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seats" in "Granite" from the Target.com website for $42.99 each - the price advertised on their site (and there was more than one model heavily discounted on Target.com - another Britax was priced at $60). We received an email confirming our order immediately, indicating a two-to-six week delivery time. Yesterday, however, we received a follow-up email from Target.com stating that the item had been mistakenly incorrectly priced and that they would not fulfill the order. If we still wanted the two items we would have to pay an additional $474!



This is truly poor management/customer service/promise fulfillment on Target's part. If it WAS a mistake, then why did no one fix the error online for an entire day, allowing the seats to sell out at the sale price? The price was also $42.99 in the stores; if I had purchased those car seats from my local Target at $42.99 each, would they have contacted me to instruct me to return them, or retroactively charged my card the full price?

Target's failure to correctly price the item is not our fault, and the sale should be honored. It is unacceptable for a company get away with "pricing errors" AFTER the sale has been made...any respectable retail store worth its salt in customer service would respect a mistaken posted price. Is there no longer any pride in the world in being an honorable company that keeps its promises?

At the very least, Target should send each purchaser the first Britax car seat from their order at the advertised price, even if they don't fulfill orders for 5 or 10 seats (which lots of people bought so that they could resell them on Ebay).

So don't shop at Target until they send all the moms of the world their super-safe car seats! Better yet, email them and tell them they should fulfill order #602-6933450-5233026!

Details (from Target.com)


Order Number: 602-6933450-5233026
Shipping Details: order will arrive in one shipment
Shipping Preference: Group my items into as few shipments as possible
Shipping Method: Standard Shipping (3-5 business days)

Shipping Address:
Keri Larson
283 XXXXXXXXXXX CT.
XXXXXX, GA XXXXX
United States

Shipping estimate for these items: December 15, 2008
Estimated Delivery: December 18, 2008 - January 6, 2009
Qty.: 2
Item: Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat - Granite" Baby Product;
Price: $42.99

Subtotal of Items: $85.98
Shipping & Handling: $32.08
Shipping Savings: -$32.08
-----------
Total before tax: $85.98
Estimated Tax: $6.02
-----------
Total for this Order: $92.00

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Soren and Julian are best buds!



Here are some photos that Nanny Kathleen took of her son Julian teaching Soren how to make the most of the toys. Julian really likes to snag any toy that Soren brings with him and hide it in his room. Kathleen usually finds them a few days later. Today he decided to share his toys with the baby. They look pretty cute together! Soren has a big kid to look up to and teach him mischief.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Co-sleeping

We committed before the baby was born to co-sleeping. It is supposed to foster a more confident, secure child, and maybe even prevent SIDS. Not to mention, it's WAY easier to go three inches to feed the baby or change him, than all the way into the next room. However, mister prince now commands whatever space in the bed he wants (he prefers perpendicular, with his head touching his dad and his feet touching me--it's like a human version of the ruler at prom!); more than once a night it seems WE wake HIM up.

So I have decided that he would likely be happier in his own bed because his mom and dad wouldn't bother him so much at night. That is easier said than done, however. We got him a bed with sides so he won't roll out (which became a worry once we moved his bed to the center of his room), but I haven't discovered a peaceful way of depositing the sleeping baby, remaining asleep, into his own bed. It makes so much more sense to put him in the center of a giant king size bed where he can entertain himself to sleep without our attendance, or I can feed him, or we can pat him back to sleep if he wakes slightly.

Anyhow, here's his cute bed. We assembled it without the base/legs, which we will add when he's taller. He really enjoys it for playtime.

This is obviously a stock photo; I don't know whose kid this is.



And here it is without the legs (and with our own kid):

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Fresh frozen organic baby meals are rad

While we are waiting on our replacement BabyCook to arrive (they now make a BPA-free version so we sent our first one in for a trade), I have tried some HappyBaby frozen organic meals. I know we are supposed to introduce foods one-at-a-time, but I am willing to take the chance because I seriously doubt he'll have an allergic reaction to SPINACH. Neither Tommy or I have food allergies, so I'm working with genetics here.

Anyway, here is the site:

Today when I sat down to try to eat my pea soup with swiss cheese, Soren thought it was for him and was SO stoked. I had to put down my lunch and fix him some mango/pear/spinach purée. I've been avoiding fruits because I don't want him to fixate on sugary meals over veggies, but this concoction is literally green so I thought it would be a good compromise. And to be fair, he seems to love peas WAY more than the Grrreat Greens.

Monday, October 13, 2008

soren's dad

so the only baby photo we have of tommy is the official hospital baby shot. however, we do have all his school photos. here are the youngest and funniest ones; tommy looked like SUCH a dennis the menace. like, you don't know it but your house is currently going up in smoke.







t, 6½ years (above)




t, 11 years


luckily tommy got a break from filming the breakfast club to sit for this one.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

soren's mom

for those of you who've asked about tommy and/or keri's baby pictures, here is the first installment. Soren's dad's baby pictures pending...


k, 10 days


k, 3 weeks


k, 8 weeks


k, 8 weeks


k, 5 months


k, 7 months


k, 9 months


k, 19 months and nekked!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

yummmmm

Yum, Soren had his first green food tonight. He loves avocado!

Vindicated

Tommy's concerted efforts over the past 3 months have finally produced the desired outcome - Soren laughs. I have been telling Soren that if he'd just give up a few laughs to his dad, he'd stop getting harassed so much, but he didn't know what I was saying because he's just a baby! So he still gets harassed. Today he laughed 5 or 6 times in a row, which was pretty funny.

OH, wait...update. He followed up his laughing performance by grabbing his feet and playing with them. Yes, I know this is probably super lame news for most of you out there. Sorry. Anyway, he is concertedly studying his toes as I type...it takes a very valiant effort for a four-month-old to aim and catch something as far away as his foot. He is...trying...very...hard...GOT IT. I love my baby!

Monday, September 29, 2008

4 month checkup

Soren visited the doctor today and got some more inoculations. Here he is with the super awesome Dr. Hogan (we drive three counties away just to see her). Little Man is large and in charge. Did I mention he now growls? Miss Kathleen was rocking him and he got territorial--he growled Julian (Miss Kathleen's son) away from his Nanny!

18 lbs, 6 oz
27 inches

Sunday, September 14, 2008

It's a pair

Tooth #2 is making its debut--it should be photographable in a day or two.

UPDATE (Monday, September 15th): here it is! Much less upsetting this go-round. He LOVES Humphrey's Very Cherry Teething Pellets. He does NOT love cherry-flavored infants' Tylenol (I tasted it, and it's way worse than, say, Jagermeister).


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tooth sighting

Alas, Soren has a white ridge on his lower left gum where an incisor looks imminent. He has also been literally choking on an overabundance of drool the past several weeks. I think the signs are clear--breastfeeding is about to become much more painful. I hope the tooth eruption isn't terribly painful for my baby! We just ordered three BPA-free freezable teething rings to put on a rotation...we'll be freezing the guest washcloths until then.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Birthday weekend


Aunt Alex, Uncle Rich, Mamie, and Papi came to visit this weekend for Papi's birthday dinner. He's 49! We also celebrated Vero's birthday and Rich & Alex's anniversary.

Soren got some fancy new duds from France. They are SOOOOO cute, and they all coordinate. Like Garanimals, but way more stylin'--dark blue corduroy, dark demin, polar fleece, and gray and brown sweaters (he also now matches our living room). They are all sized 1-year, since Little Man is currently wearing 6-months...these should fit for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Soren's dad really wants an adult version of the brown double-breasted sweater with a button-on hoodie:

Of course, out of ALL his stuff, this is what he was most fascinated with (I guess all kids just really like cardboard boxes, especially ones that play music):

Everyone left this morning after hanging out with Soren for one last hour. They love him!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Working out the wrinkles

Nanny Kate said Soren is the happiest baby she's ever met! He is also apparently heavily intrigued by her son, Julian. Soren is becoming socialized!

We are also getting reports back about how much Soren likes to talk. We figured that out the other night when he babbled from 10pm to 11pm, although we were all in bed with the lights out. SOME of us were trying to get some sleep...BABIES.

He is napping a little better in his new environment now. We got an extra video monitor set up at the nanny's so that she can feel secure letting him sleep on his tum during naps (he'll sleep for hours and hours like that, but only about 30 minutes max on his back if it isn't night time). He napped for 2 hours there today, and has been napping for 3 hours at home this evening. Five hours is his minimum daytime nap quota, so we're doing fair. Hopefully we'll never see the overwrought meltdown we witnessed the night of his first day away from home--that was a MESS. More sleep! More sleep!

Monday, August 25, 2008

That baby is crazy!

Soren has suddenly figured out that he can grab things with his hands in order to put said things in his mouth. He's been doing this for a while with anything cloth, but now he has moved on to the toys hanging above his activity mat. Even more impressive, today (perhaps inadvertently) he overtly opted to hang on to the couch while standing next to it--I guess the instinct NOT to fall over is pretty strong, even in a three-month-old. He stood completely self-sufficiently for a few seconds. He will definitely be walking within the next six months, no doubt. Crawling is another matter--he never hangs out on the floor long enough to get the chance.

He also now lunges his body in the direction that he'd like to go--Tommy was holding him yesterday and I was standing next to them, and Soren made it clear by using his arms and body that he preferred to go with the milk lady. He's smart! He's also in all 6-month-sized clothing! We think he is about 25 inches long, from what we can tell by laying him down on my cloth-cutting template marked with inches. He's tall AND squirmy...

No longer undocumented...


The bottom third is folded up--don't worry, there's a dad on there at the bottom! And it's Tommy!

16.6

Soren has officially doubled his birth weight (it's like carrying around TWO babies)! Last night he weighed 16 pounds, 9ish ounces. I tried to catch him when he weighed 16 pounds, 6 ounces (truly double) but I missed that, uh, window. Tommy said I could probably wait him out and he'd spit up 3 or 4 ounces so I could weigh him again.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

And he laughs!

Soren laughed for real last night for the first time while his Dad played Tickle Monster! He did it for me this morning again when I gave him raspberries on his belly. It's very VERY funny because he has a very deep voice.

Soren loves the nanny!

Well Soren stayed with Miss Kathleen today, and he seemed to like it quite a bit. When I picked him up at the end of the day he actually didn't seem all that interested in leaving Miss Kathleen's arms. Then he cried when I held him. While that might sound bad to some, it makes me feel a ton better about leaving him three times a week.
Kathleen's son Julian, however, was not happy about the new baby in the house. He won't be wanting a little brother or sister anytime soon, it seems.
And little man loves the swing! We'll be checking out Amazon.com after this post. By the way, check out Soren's latest trick, blowing bubbles.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Big Week

Soren had a big week, vacationing at the beach and meeting lots of people (and dogs). The adventure began with a seven-hour trip in the car to Myrtle Beach, where grandma rented a house.Soren got all sunblocked up, covered in clothes from head to toe, and hung out under an SPF 50 cabana. Fun!Then his mom and dad shocked him with the cold beach water, and he was MAD. More fun!Soren met Aunt Alex for the first time, and threw up on her lots, and peed on her at least three times. They are really good buds now.
Grandma's puppy Belle came to the beach house, too, although she wasn't allowed to play with the baby since her legs are about 4 feet long and she doesn't quite have control over them yet. And she eats weird things.Soren visited his first tiki lounge while at the beach:
Then we came home via Summerville so Soren could meet Papi Gregand Mamie Vero.

So had several other visitors, including Marlene. She likes to smell babies, so she zoomed right over.

We had a great week!

PS--Happy two-month birthday, little monster.