Gleeful for grandparents

Grandpa Jim and Grandma Gloria also came for a visit in April, their first since February. Of course, Soren had changed an awful lot and had lots of new tricks to show them.
One was his growing competence as a bodhran drummer.

Hands down, it's his favorite instrument. Just tonight he was beating time on it while Jeff played guitar and Auntie Nora played mandolin to "You Are My Sunshine." Oh, yes, Nora has begun a much-anticipated week-long visit with us. We'll report in the next post.
Hmm, thinks Soren. I like having all these relatives visit!

New skills: Standing, waving, dulcimer-playing

Before the month May is over, here are some representative pictures from April. As you can see, Soren has been standing unassisted for a while, but not unsupported. He still needs to hold on to something sturdy, although for the first time this Memorial Day weekend, he demonstrated free standing (no hands, ma!) for a few seconds at a time. Nervewracking seconds for us!
Here Soren is showing off his wave. It started as a stiff-armed salute (Grannie Annie liked to call it his "benediction") , then the fingers got involved, and now he does the very cute finger flap -- usually pointed back at himself rather than at the departing party. It's the sweetest thing for me to carry him slowly upstairs to bed as he waves goodnight to Daddy, the lights, the fan, etc. These are also the objects he has figured out the ASL signs for, so we're starting to communicate with our hands.
When Grannie and Papaw were visiting last month, they brought with them the newest addition to the instrument collection at The Roost. It's a kit-made hammered dulcimer that a friend of theirs built and wanted to place in a good home. We are very grateful to have it. It's an instrument that sounds good (like a harp, if you've never heard it) no matter whether you really know how to play it or not. Since Jeff and I had gotten lessons from Lorna in North Carolina earlier in the month, we kind of know what we're doing. With our supervision, Soren is allowed to "hammer" on it every so often. The sweetest hammering you'll ever hear!
We'll close with Soren spooning. His current favorite foods: pureed pork chop and peaches (separately, NOT together!).

Walkscore & Score! He's walking

Well, sort of. Soren's walking all over the place if he has grown-up hands to steady him.

This short video was shot nearly a month ago, on April 27, and today he's cruising even faster, with surer little feet. But still needing balance assistance. He isn't quite crawling yet, either, although he can fling himself from a sitting position forward onto his belly if he needs to reach something a few feet away. And once prone, he can slide forward or back a foot or so, but we daren't call him mobile because we know that's still coming!

Anyway, this video reminded me of a cool website I wanted to share: www.walkscore.com.

You type in your address and an algorithm calculates the walkability of your home by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc., from Google Maps. It's not perfect--it thinks a nearby doctor's office is our nearest "drug store," when there's one actually right across the street from our neighborhood food market--but I appreciate that it includes a pub and a bookstore in its scoring criteria.

Happily for Soren's future on foot, The Roost scores 92 points of 100, making it "A Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car." Well, we own a car, but most days it doesn't leave our driveway. Today, as an example, Soren and I walked downtown to meet Jeff for lunch, then we walked to our library for baby story hour, then we walked around the neighborhoods with a friend (while both our babies napped).

Score your own home, and walk on!

Floor hockey with a canning ring

Taken 2-1/2 weeks ago, this video shows one of the ways Soren is sportingly amused by our tile floor. He doubtless will be less amused by our choice of floor coverings once he starts walking and taking the inevitable tumbles!

And, yes, the blue blob in the background is the inelegant but functional playpen we have installed in our kitchen. We can't open the fridge door fully if the dishwasher door is open, and vice versa. Sigh.

Tired and wrung out

I realize it's been nearly a month since my last post, and that's because our family has been slammed lately by illness coupled with job responsibilities. Or, to illustrate with photos of Soren, we've felt overly tired and wrung out (and ready for the dryer!).
Soren caught a cold about two weeks after our return from Tennessee, and Jeff caught it and then overworked at a weekend home show when he should have been resting and warding off further sickness, and got bronchitis. He took seriously his doctor's order to stay home for ONE WEEK. Although he worked some from home, he had to sleep a lot, and was not very available to help with Soren.

Jeff's bronchitis coincided with the final week's push on a contract job I'd committed to: producing an annual report for our local port district. I would have called in the afterguard (my parents!), but they were traveling out of state, so I pulled all the strings of my neighborhood childcare connections AND tried two new babysitters who came to our home. They were actually the first sitters I've PAID to watch Soren, and both worked out well, but neither have very many hours in their schedule to offer me in future... Good, affordable childcare is scarce around here. Probably is everywhere.
A bright spot was my good friend Barb in Anacortes responding to my plea for help. She took the ferry over to spend a day with us and was surrogate grandma for the day -- bless her!
While Soren had his cold and the obvious symptoms of coughing and runny nose (which of course he hated to have wiped), I had to isolate him from other babies, which made the whole situation harder. No playgroups or playdates, or shared childcare with other moms.
But thankfully Soren was all recovered by my first Mother's Day (and Jeff was well on the mend). Thankfully I didn't catch anything from the two of them. And thankfully my port project came to an end and my client loved the final product.

View a PDF of my eight-page publication by clicking on the link to the 2008-2009 Community Report here. And you can check out prior issues of the quarterly newsletter I've been creating since Summer 2008. Am I courageous or crazy to continue working with an infant? I'm still figuring that one out...

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...!