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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

it's official...

Soren HATES the car. I thought babies were supposed to love the car and fall asleep immediately, but Soren decidedly does neither. We went to visit our friend Elaine and Baby Nathan yesterday, and I had to stop at two different gas stations on the way simply to try to calm down the little man and keep him from having an apoplectic fit. I am really nervous about our long drive this weekend--at least the dad will be driving so the mom can sit in the back and try to console Car Hater. If I ever considered going farther than 10 miles on my own with Soren stuck in the backseat, I have become disabused of that whim.

On a happier note, Elaine and Nathan looked great...he is such a little peanut. He was born exactly four weeks to the day after Soren; he was a week late and his mom had to be induced. He is so tiny! I don't remember Soren ever being that small. He is a pacifier junkie, too--I am jealous.



Speaking of Soren not being small, he was up to 13 pounds, six ounces in his seventh week. He has outgrown ALL his newborn and small diapers...we have had to order a whole new round of the next size up. We're going to put all the old ones on a diaper consignment site. Until we find a diaper that we absolutely love, we don't want to pawn the outgrown ones off on our friends.

We've tried Kissaluvs contour and fitted diapers with a variety of covers (Stacinator wool covers and Sugar Peas fleece and wool flannel covers), Happy Heineys and Happy Heineys one-size-fits-all pocket diapers, Happy Hempys with covers, Mommy's Touch pocket and all-in-ones (AIOs), and most recently Tommy bought several Bum Genius 3.0 pocket diapers. My favorite combo is the Kissaluv cotton contour diaper with a Sugar Peas fleece cover, although the cotton feels wet the the baby unlike some of the other diapers that have a dry-touch feel when wet, so they do require hourly changes. We are about to try out Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers, which are described on several diaper sites as the "workhorse" of cloth diapers. Yes, in case you are wondering, having an embarrassing name is requisite of cloth diaper lines. Lame!

More narrative to come

Now that Soren is seven weeks old (today!), he is a lot more interactive. We'll have a lot more to discuss on his blog from now on.

Last week, Auntie Kim and her fiancé Matt (we'll make it easy by calling him Uncle Matt) came to visit! Soren hopes they get a baby for him to play with soon. Well, after they get married in December, at least.

Soren also is eating lots and lots...he weighed in at 13 pounds, 6 ounces at the end of last week. He is now wearing all his 3 - 6 month clothes, and even some 6 - 12 month items, like this very cool hoody sweatshirt. He looks fierce!

We got a Baby Björn this weekend so that Soren can help us around the house with chores. He learned how to do laundry yesterday. Good thing, since he makes multiple loads a day! He especially likes to pee in the new diaper we are putting on him, and maybe even do a poo in the second new one. At least we have full loads in the washer and don't waste any water...