Jason and Corrinne

Soren and I go out to a Puyallup Valley farm every week to pick up our CSA share. It’s really the highlight of our week. There’s always something new to see: baby animals that have grown since last week, new puddles to jump in, new mud to get stuck in, etc. We love it! Here are some pictures I took yesterday.

Petting the tat

Soren said, "Nice!"

Me: "Soren, do you want to touch the pigs?" Soren, wrinkling up his nose: "Nooo."

Me: "Are you sure?" Soren: "Noooo."

Trying to touch the chicken

King of the farm (with freshly picked herbs in his sack)

Tools and mustard: the only things a boy needs – or apparently at least my boy.

Several times a day, Soren decides it’s time to remove some condiments from the fridge door, and take them to the table where he can play with them. Today was the mustard’s turn. He climbed up onto the bench to find the perfect place for the bottle (on a place mat), climbed down to fetch his beloved tool box, and returned to the table play with his treasures. He’s usually content not to open the bottles, except for the lime juice which he guzzles, shudders, and repeats.

Soren got into the dirty clothes basket this morning and got Jason’s boxers over his head. I was able to snap a few blurry pics with my phone. It was pretty funny.

Soren had his first wagon ride this weekend at Nana & Grandpa’s – in my old wagon! He pulled it around for quite awhile before he wanted to get in for a ride. He never quite figured out how to hold on, so most of the time he was sitting very still and being very serious.

First wagon ride

Daddy is working from home today due to ice, so Soren pushed his cubicle over to the couch next to Jason, put his laptop inside, crawled in, and started typing. Pretty cute.

Mobile info worker

Soren’s first real snow day was kind of a bust. I’d ordered snow clothes for him several weeks ago, so we were READY when the snow started to fall yesterday. But by the time we got out to play today, the snow was mostly gone and he really struggled with his boots. Never having worn shoes that didn’t let his ankles bend, they proved to be pretty challenging to walk in. And then when he’d fall, the slick pants didn’t provide any traction for getting back up again. We still managed to have some fun, but it wasn’t long before he said, “bye-bye” to the snow and wanted to head back inside.

Where has the summer gone?!  And why have we been so bad about posting pictures?!   We got away to Lake Chelan last week and played between the rain drops.  Soren started doing a duck sound in a whole new way after hearing the real thing so much.  You’ll have to ask him what a duck says next time you see him.

Soren and ducks

Playing by the lake

Not happy about his dirty hands

First ride on the slide!

Best way to hike

Three happy hikers

Separation anxiety has hit hard around here!  Our good little sleeper that has been sleeping for about 12 hours at night for the last three months suddenly doesn’t want to go to bed!  He stands in his crib and screams.  And screams.  We’ve had to rock him to bed for the last few nights and last night, he woke up at 2am and screamed off and on for two hours!  He went down much easier tonight, so hopefully we are turning the corner.  Here is a picture of how Soren and I spent much of our day.  I can’t seem to cross the room without him hanging on.  It’s really comical.   “Thankfully” he was still doing it when Jason got home, so we were able to get a picture. 

Happy birthday to our precious baby boy!  You are the best gift ever and we are so grateful for this past year with you!  Here are some pictures of our first two days together.  Love, Mom and Dad

We couldn't believe how red you got when you were mad.

We stared at you for hours on end.

You had the smallest, cutest feet ever. (And still do!)

Here you are failing your car seat test.

Getting mad and red again.

Proud papa before the longest ride home ever.

Safely home and resting skin to skin - both of us loving every minute of it!

Soren LOVES standing.  He can’t pull himself to standing  yet (unless he’s crawling on us, and then he seems comfortable enough to do it on his own), but he is so excited when we put him next to a table, chair, or dishwasher door and let him grab on.  His favorite place to hang on is the dishwasher door.  He’ll stand there for quite awhile if he’s in the mood, which is great when I need to get stuff done in the kitchen.  He also loves pulling things out of the dishwasher and throwing them on the floor.  I mean, he’s great at unloading the dishwasher already!   So, we have to make sure the knives are out of reach and the spoons are in front.  Notice the spoons on the floor.

As we close in on the one year mark, our little baby is starting to look so much like a big boy!  I don’t even realize it until I look back at pictures and see the changes.  Here are a couple pictures taken in the last month where I think he looks the most like a little boy.    

Soren and I have a new game we play quite a bit.  I go around the corner and hide and call, “Where’s Mommy?  Where’s Mommy?”  He starts crawling to find me, and gets so excited when he finds me.   Super cute.  I snapped a few pictures while we were playing this week. 

March Madness has hit hard around here!  Soren and I have been checking my bracket almost hourly today to see who’s ahead.  (The Hendersons have an annual competition and the winner gets cookies from all the losers – a great prize.)  As I was putting clothes away in Soren’s closet today, I noticed his ”Hoops” fleece and decided to see if it would fit.  It’s a little big, but it works.  I also took out an old stuffed basketball, which he was afraid of at first!  I decided to take off his socks and see if he’d be happier if he could see his feet, which he was.         

I think it’s safe to say that Soren is doing pretty well on solid food now.  We had a slow start, but after we began letting him feed himself finger foods and ditched the purees, he’s been making good progress.  I don’t think he’s met a vegetable yet he hasn’t liked!  We also discovered that he’ll eat anything on a big wooden spoon.   (He has his own smaller version that works well, too.)  So what did Soren eat this week, you ask?  Let’s see…  chili, tofu, curry, broccoli and leek soup, peas, lettuce, apples, pears, Cheerios, Puffs, grapes, carrots, celery, chard, and kale.  Last night’s dinner was T-bone steak (pre-chewed a bit by me, of course), Brussels sprouts, and purple potatoes.  We thought it was pretty cute that our baby was eating steak and potatoes with us.   And tonight’s dinner was spaghetti.  Now up until tonight, Soren’s favorite food was steamed pears.  Hands-down.  But as soon as he got that big wooden spoon in his mouth tonight with yummy meat sauce all over it, the pears slipped to #2.  We have never seen him eat so much!  He just kept asking for more and more.  He’d get a noodle in his mouth every once in awhile, but the sauce just sent him to baby heaven.  Here he is, enjoying spaghetti for the first time.