only boring people get bored

Soren's favorite word to describe anything he doesn't want to do is "boring." The opposite of boring, in Soren's lingo, is "fun," and sometimes "funny." No chicken for dinner! Chicken is boring! Are trains boring? No, trains are funny! He picked up this new vocab from _Llama Llama Loves his Mama_, so watch out for subversive animal stories.

Real time update on Soren's counting prowess

Yesterday Aunt Christie and Jackson came over for dinner, and I wanted to brag about how Soren started counting to four at Grandma's house two weeks ago. I pulled a handful of Cookie Monster cookies (*my* favorite, yum!) and asked him to count them (hoping I wouldn't look like a bragging/crazy/annoying mom who thinks her kid's cooler than he really is).

Soren went:

"ooonnneee...ttttwwwwoooo....tttthhhhrrrreeeeeeee....ffffoooouuuurrrr......

ffffiiiivvvveeee....ssssiiiixxxxx....sssseeeeven.....eight!"


Tommy and I looked at each other and cracked up, because it was so unexpected (and cute and exciting).

He also apparently has learned other things on his own that we should have been teaching him, like the alphabet.--he has large chunks of it memorized, which I discovered this weekend when we listened to They Might Be Giants' "Here Comes the Alphabet."

Sorry I've been so slack!

I have been pretty bad about blogging about Soren's escapades since, wow, last summer. I'll attempt to play catch-up here!

School photo time again!

These are Soren's spring school photos. I think he looks very pensive and intriguing: 

Christmas is FUN when you're one!

Grandma came for Christmas, which was very exciting across the board for Soren. He really got into opening his presents, and he got lots of cool stuff. He got a fort from Santa, a cash register with Euro dollars from Alex and Rich, and a bunch of other cool stuff (none of it as fascinating as Grandma's phone, second only to Aunt Alex's which plays music). Soren modeled his new umbrella for us since it was raining (as always) on Christmas. His jammies for 2009 featured sock monkeys, just for the record.

Second Thanksgiving in Madison

We visited Madison again this year for Thanksgiving, which will hopefully become a family tradition because it's nice to celebrate that type of holiday in a cozy, cold setting. This year T got to come with us, but he had the flu which sucked! We did get to play a bunch of Wii games with Alex and Rich including DDR, which was a ton of fun. I can't wait to do it again next year!

The pictures are pretty cute, though. Soren loves him some Uncle Rich!

Halloween!

Soren was a very cute rhino for Halloween this year. He got to dress up for a school party, and he even came home with orange icing on his costume!

Chicago Marathon!

Dad (Tommy) ran the Chicago Marathon, which was super exciting (we were very proud!). Alex and Rich came down to visit with us (well, mostly with Soren). I just noticed that almost all these photos are of him eating--that's his favorite pastime!

Soren really loved riding the train, and loved standing up in the backseat of the taxi even more. He's totally cut out for city life, it looks like. He didn't love having to wear gloves, however--check out that grumpy face.

We had a ton of fun in Chicago, and can't wait to live closer (like, IN it). We visited our old standby favorite restaurant--Bistro 110, home of the best pommes frites in the greater Illinois area. Yum. Soren also enjoyed his fair share of room service, Dunkin Donuts, and other fine delicacies that make vacation fun. 

And once again, Soren got some quality time with Uncle Rich.

Soren Larson, International Man of Mystery

Soren's passport arrived, and it is SUPER fancy. I attached a picture of it because he looks so cute, so DON'T steal his passport number.

The best part about this fancy new electronic passport is that all the pages have background images of important places that you should visit in the U.S., such as Independence Hall, Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, and the Moon.

It's that time of year...

I am going to purchase Soren's Halloween costume soon (because if I wait too much longer they'll all be sold out). The following are the costumes in the running. Vote for your favorite! This way I don't have to email everyone and as what they think would be the cutest (because I don't want to stick him in what *I* think is cute if it isn't funny to the rest of the world). The survey is at the top of the left nav bar.