Soren Update: 10 Months

In less than a month Soren has turned into a confident crawler.  I enjoy watching him as something across the room catches his attention, like an open cabinet door or my purse, and he makes an excited beeline on his hands and knees and yelling "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"  I don't know what it is about my purse, because surely the novelty should have worn off by now, but he loves digging through it. He has the same look of concentration on him that I remember from Oliver when he was engrossed in something new and exciting, even if it was just ripping all the cards out of my wallet.

Every afternoon when Chris arrives home, Soren hears him come through the backdoor and he starts his slow, but methodical crawl towards his dad to greet him.  Chris says it's funny to listen to Soren make his approach, because before he can spot him, he hears the slow tap of little hands and knees against the hardwood floors as Soren makes his way through the dining room and to the back door. 

Soren likes to follow me around, but even though he's gotten a lot faster, he gets frustrated because I buzz around the house, and he can't keep up with me.  And to me, it's like having a dog underfoot.  I'll traipse back and forth between the dining room and the kitchen to clear the table after a meal and I need to keep one eye on the ground to keep track of Soren so I don't step on him!

Lately Soren's been making a beeline for stairs. Uh oh! We were outside one afternoon and Chris looked up and there he was up one step of the front stoop.  He can now pull himself up on furniture, or whatever he can grab onto and doesn't tip over when he pulls on it.  He crawls up to me and tries using my legs (or my skirt!) to pull himself up. 
Soren still enjoys looking at books.  I don't really make it through an entire book reading to him, but he likes to turn the pages. 

Just like his older brother, Soren has developed a love for bananas.  He isn't quite as demanding as Oliver was, but he still makes it known when he spots a banana that he wants a piece too.  Unfortunately for Soren, the bananas remain a limited treat since he's prone to constipation, or "slow bowels" as the doctor diagnosed it.  At his suggestion, we give Soren a bit of prune juice in his bottles and that seems to help. 

Soren is finally on his way to someday being able to bite into a sweet Minnesota apple as we just discovered today his first tooth his broken the gum line!  Seeing that he's getting his first tooth is exciting, but I'll admit I was a little sad because I'll miss his gummy smile. 

I posted about not being so sure that I was really finished with breastfeeding, but I can finally say that phase in my life is over.  I'd often been indifferent about breastfeeding, especially when I pumped for the first time after going back to work.  Breastfeeding is touted as so inexpensive, but the reality of buying a pump, bottles and even formula to make up for what I couldn't pump, it wasn't exactly cost-free.  But it's still cheaper, I discovered after Soren's first month on only formula.  I was astounded when I realized that Soren goes through nearly three 40-ounce cans of formula a month.  When he ws taking bottles of breast milk during the weekend and breastfeeding on the weekends, he couldn't make it through a can half that size before it expired. 

We're in a good phase with sleep.  We've achieved a well-established nap and bedtime schedule and the days of multiple naps and unpredictability feel like a long time ago.  He's often down for his first nap by 7:30 a.m. or 7:45 a.m. and then goes down for his second nap with Oliver at noon.  Bedtime is around 6:30 p.m., which then gives me time to put Oliver to bed by 7:00 p.m.  He's relatively easy to put down - just a quick diaper change, a search for his pacifier and in his crib he goes.  He really doesn't want to be sung to anymore, although with a bit of persistence, I've been able to get him to snuggle with me long enough for a quick song.  He often gets up too early for our liking, to the point that a 6:30 a.m. wake-up is a good morning, but at least the super early mornings are more of an anomaly.