Last week we drove down to Iowa to remember and celebrate the life of Soren's Great Grandma Larsen. Soren loved being the object of so much attention! Here he's wearing a bib GG Larsen sent him that says "Made in America with Norwegian Parts" Soren decided to take up the torch of his great grandma's love of chocolate. Unfortunately not all of it stayed in his mouth, as the yumminess made his mouth water and leak, but you can see he was feeling the sugary bliss.
The hotel pool was a bit colder than the pool at the Y, but Soren braved it to show off all his swimming tricks, including going under water!
After a long day of flirting and being cute Soren really wanted to hit the bottle. Our struggles to pry it from his little paws was all for naught, as ten minutes later grandpa and Uncle Tom were sneaking tastes of Guinness to him at the other end of the table. What a bunch of punks!!

Nine months old!! Soren is still deciding whether or not crawling is worth all the fuss. He's pretty happy just sitting in one place for now. He loves to try out new weird noises, especially if they are loud, and likes to embarass mom when they are out and about by screeching as loud as he can. It's a great way to get everyone to look at him, and he's a giant flirt! Soren loves his music classes, especially the dancing, and is working on clapping. It's kind of hard to remember to open both hands!

Grandma sent Soren a whole lot of fun dinosaur clothes. He's not so sure about the hat, he's pretty sure we put it there as a game to see if he can get it off.
Silly boy!

Last week Soren and I surprised Uncle Tom on his birthday and brought a cake and balloon to his classroom. Soren was really worried about the balloon floating away, so he held onto it with his hand AND his mouth. The whole time we were there. Wasn't that thoughtful of him?

You know that trick where you put a cherry stem in your mouth and tie it into a knot with your tongue? I'm pretty sure Soren could do that if given the opportunity. Tonight I put a slice of tofu in his grilled cheese sandwich. Well Soren is too clever for that, and was putting the bits of sandwich in his mouth, extracting the tofu from between the cheese and bread, spitting it back out and depositing it on his tray. He quickly decided though that this was more trouble than it was worth, and ate the rest of the sandwich, tofu and all. And then of course he went back and ate the pieces of tofu he'd put on his tray. Classic.

This weekend Isaac and I took turns having fun at our friend Patrick's cabin. We had to take turns because we also took turns being sick. Soren had the stomach flu last week, and just when we thought we were out of the woods he was kind enough to share with mom and dad. But we were still able to get outside a bit and play in the snow!

Still dramatic....

Eight months old! Happy Valentines Day from stud muffin Soren!
Soren enjoyed a grilled cheese heart sammie for lunch today. He also had heart waffles for breakfast!

My son is dramatic. I have no idea where he could have gotten this from. He is super dramatic about eating. It's really hard not to laugh and potentially encourage it. Here he is reacting to the carrot he put in his own mouth

And after eating half a piece of toast, suddenly one bite didn't sit right with him.

Trying to get every last bit out

The best part is, he went on to eat several more pieces of carrot, and most of his toast, without complaint.

While Soren was enjoying his dinner I was eating some sushi. In my continuing quest to introduce Soren to new tastes in hopes of him being an unpicky eater I thought I would let him suck on some pickled ginger. The kid went bonkers. He LOVED it!! Go figure.

And lest you forget the cuteness...

Party tricks and other cuteness!!

Here's Soren playing peekaboo...

Soren is always willing to give his monkey kisses. Mom and dad on the other hand he has a heartbreaking tendancy to shove away, much as he does in this clip when the monkey tries to kiss him back.

A day in the life- rocking in the chair, being silly, eating his shoe- it's all so exhausting!

Standing tall! Sometimes I can hardly believe what a big boy he is, how quickly he's passing baby-hood. Thankfully he shows no interest in crawling or pulling up on his own, I'm not ready for chasing yet!

Soren's first foray into politics! We caucused together tonight, and not only did we weigh in on the presidential candidates, but mom got roped into being a delegate for the state senate convention. How exciting!