News to call home about

Ring, ring! Better pick up to hear this... Soren cut a new tooth--his third--this past weekend, and now he has two opposing teeth. One on the top to join the two on the bottom. He's already gnawed toothmarks on my computer desk. The days of letting him "gum" whatever he wanted are over. Now he's truly chewing.
He's also more and more fascinated by buttons, especially those that make beeps when depressed. This morning, desperate for time on the computer, I let him play with our cordless phone to his heart's content, and of course that wore the battery down so I had to recharge it.
But he's so cute, he gets away with lots. Today in our Food Co-op, I had a checker joke that my baby was holding up the line because two sets of my friends in the process of checking out had to take time to visit with Soren, sitting up tall and smiley in the shopping cart seat.

Yet to come: an official crawling announcement, but he's SO close. Jeff claims Soren is "ground mobile." He can maneuver his body to grab an object a full body-length away, but then he pops right back up into a sitting position. Seems like his arms and belly muscles are not strong enough yet for the hands-and-knees position. But now that he's figured out the stance, he's been exercising those muscles in preparation. When the big breakthrough occurs, you, dear reader, will be the first to know!

Meeting the relatives in Tennessee

It was so special for Soren to meet his great-grandmother Lebania in Rogersville, Tenn. She is 91 and in a nursing home, but on her walls are scores of photos of her two children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, of whom Soren is the newest. Whenever we called her, she would say, "I'm a-lookin' at Soren's picture" -- and now she has held him. That counts for a lot.
Making the rounds of the many relatives in Rogersville (where my dad grew up) included visits with my dad's cousins Ron & Jean (above), and Tom & Linda (below).
We were graciously hosted by my dad's sister Cheryl and her husband Harold. On Easter we all went out for brunch along with their children (my cousins) David and Sarah (below). David is a sheriff's deputy and Sarah is heading to Air Force basic training in one month.
Cheryl and Harold's oldest child is my cousin Jamie, with whom we stayed in Chattanooga. She and her family (husband Louis and kids Jack & Emily) also drove up to Rogersville for Easter, and that meant we got to spend time with Louis's mother Janet (below).
Hope you followed all the family tree connections! It was a whirlwind trip seeing everyone we could possibly squeeze in during two weeks, but worth it. And, for the record, Soren behaved very well on all our plane flights. One of the stewardesses wanted to take him home with her...!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! One week ago we were still in Tennessee, having a chat with the Easter Bunny...
...admiring some fancy cakes (the bunny on the left was made by my aunt!)...
...and participating in Soren's first Easter egg hunt at my my aunt & uncle's church.
Lastly, our family portrait on Easter day.

Scenes from the South

Pink and white dogwoods are in full bloom right now, as is the "redbud," with its delicate purple froth of flowers. The elegant house above is on the main street of Concord, near Charlotte, N.C.

At Old Fort, N.C., we stopped at the Mountain Gateway Museum and Soren checked out this log cabin and relaxed on the banks of the Catawba River.
And in a gift shop in the same town (on the same day, wearing the same pajamas -- we really do change his clothes daily!), Soren got to try out his first rocking horse!
We fly home tomorrow (April 15) and as soon as the travel dust settles, I'll be reporting on the last leg of our journey, visiting the relatives in east Tennessee on Easter weekend. Until then!

New friends in N. Carolina -- Round Two

If we'd had twins, this is what our family might look like! In actuality, the baby on the left is my college friend's son, Gabe, who is two months younger than Soren but who looks remarkably similar. They have the same skin and eye coloring, the same amount of hair, and are approximately the same size (at least for now). That's enough similarities that we were twice asked, "Are they twins?" on the day we got out and about around Charlotte, N.C. They happened to be both wearing navy sweatshirts, too.

Here's another view of the two cuties. From the nose down they have their own personalities! It was really fun for Soren to share toys and baby babbles with Gabe.
Gabe's parents Maggie (my Williams-Mystic classmate) and Mark took us out to eat at their favorite BBQ joint. We stayed two nights with them in Charlotte, and were inspired by a short video his parents made and posted to YouTube -- it's a "cry for help" from Gabe's puzzled baby perspective, similar to our fun with the SorenTalks blog. Maggie and Mark gave us permission to share this video link; we highly recommend taking 2-1/2 minutes to enjoy it.
Then it was on to Marshall, N.C., near Asheville in the western mountains, to stay three nights with our 2006 trip friend, Lorna. You can read about our fortuitous meeting in this post of our sabbatical blog: Scroll down just past the Fourth of July pictures in the narrative and you'll see a paragraph that begins: "Back in the hills of western North Carolina, we reconnected with a 'music angel' named Lorna who had introduced herself to us at a music festival we’d attended in early June."
This photo shows Lorna introducing Soren to the beautiful blooming Carolina buckthorn in her yard. Soren is her honorary grandson; they fell in love with each other. More about our many musical adventures with Lorna, and her charming guest cottage, in another post!

And lastly, Soren got to meet the "Songbird of the Smokies," the inimitable Laura Boosinger. She is the voice behind Soren's favorite CD of mountain music, called "Sing It Yourself," and he was awed to hear the melody to HIS FAVORITE SONG, "Old Groundhog," coming out of her mouth. Jeff met Laura at a banjo camp on the Olympic Peninsula in 2005 and we visited with her in 2006 at her home in Asheville. Now she is the director of the Madison County Arts Council, which happens to be housed at the county seat in Marshall. I repeat, fortuitous!
We came away with Laura's newest CD, "Most of All." Like all her music, it's wonderful!

New friends in Tennessee, Georgia, & S. Carolina -- Round 1

We're halfway through a two-week vacation in the Southeast whose main purpose is to introduce Soren to his great-grandma in Tennessee -- but that won't happen until this coming Easter weekend. Meanwhile, we've been visiting other family and friends in a driving loop through Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina (where we are now). We're averaging 50 mpg in the rental car, since we got upgraded to a Prius!

OK, first stop was Chattanooga, Tenn., where we flew in and were hosted by my cousin Jamie and her husband Louis and kids Emily (7) and Jack (3). Three blondies! Jack was pretty hot on Soren until we all had to ride in the car together, which brought on Soren's inevitable yowls of protest (he still doesn't like to be confined to his carseat, too bad for all of us). With fingers stuffed in ears, Jack demanded, "Turn him OFF!" If only we knew where that button was...! We brought the kids a stuffed orca whale from Washington, which is shown in the PJ picture below.

Then it was on to Monroe, Ga., a perfectly lovely small town about an hour east of Atlanta that we discovered on our 2006 road trip. We stayed with our friend Chad, a 33-year-old community organizer dynamo and realtor/developer (of the good kind) who has founded a nonprofit called Friends of Walton County and serves on Monroe's Downtown Development Authority, the Walton County Quality Growth Committee, and a YMCA steering committee, among others. Our kind of guy! He had a soft spot for Soren and is shown here assisting with some first steps on the full-length pine floorboards in his restored 1906 Craftsman.

Soren and I took a day trip to Suwanee, Ga., to visit my childhood friend Erin and her 3-year-old son Joshua, who is the most amiable toddler I have met. Anything Erin asked of him ("Would you like to show Soren your train upstairs?") was answered with a cheery, "Oh, yes, please!" And when he answered me, it was "Yes, ma'am." "We are in the South," Erin explained. "It's a common courtesy."

Lastly, I will list among friends made this fellow we met briefly in Abbeville, SC, where we stopped for lunch yesterday. Turns out he is a member of a rhythm-n-blues/soul/funk band called The Flying Clouds. We found a video of the band from 1999 on YouTube (click here), and he is the singer who comes in at 3:00 bouncing up and down with incredible energy -- which is sad, since recently he broke his leg and was hobbling around with one crutch and a cane. But his spirit was strong.

We're now in Charlotte, NC, headed tomorrow to the Asheville area, and we'll report on visits with those friends in Round 2!