Soren Update: 12 Months

Soren is still a little peanut, but the doctor said he's following his growth curves nicely and even though he's on the small side, he is right where he should be.  At 18 pounds, he's under the 5th percentile, but he's in the 25th and 26th percentile for height and head circumference.  (29 inches and 18 inches respectively.)  He can still fit in most 6/9 month or 9 month clothes, although some of the pants and sleepers are starting to be too short for him. 

What is growing may be his hair!  Many have commented that they think his hair is starting to grow in.  He still is many, many months away from his first haircut. 

We think Soren is going to be a climber and a daredevil.  Oliver never attempted to climb out of his crib, but I can see Soren giving it a try.  If we lie on the floor to play with him, he likes to climb all over us.  He's learned how to climb off the couch and then at the playground, he'll push himself down the slide.  I know many two-year-olds who need coaxing to go down the slide!  We have a couple of riding toys, and he loves having anyone push him so he can cruise up and down the sidewalks.  He's game for about anything.  Of course, whatever Oliver is doing, but also chilling out in the swing or taking walks in the stroller.  He acts like a dog whose seen his leash by trying to dive out of our arms when we head outside for a walk and he sees the stroller set up on the sidewalk. 

Other things that Soren likes to do is play with his Little People barn and anything with wheels.  It's cute and amazing how he is already making vehicle noises whenever he plays with the plethora of cars, trucks and trains we have around here.

He also likes to play peekaboo.  He picks up any random piece of cloth, whether a spare diaper or his jacket and holds it in front of his face.  Or he'll crawl behind the leg of a chair or into another room and peek out from behind the corner and smile a huge grin.  I imagine he could play peekaboo for as long as we have the patience for it. 

Being a child with an older sibling, Soren has been exposed to more screen time than Oliver was.  Plus, we recently bought an iPad, which immediately became a favorite "toy" of Oliver's.  We have not yet let Soren play with the iPad, yet when he toddled over to my computer, his first reaction was to swipe his finger across the screen!  It could have been a coincidence since he is starting to put at things when I read him books, or maybe not. 

Just after 11 months, we switched Soren to cow's milk/soy milk and have never looked back.  I noticed we were about to run out of formula, and before buying another canister, I gave him a bottle of milk and he sucked it down.  I couldn't believe I didn't have to mix it with formula or heat it up.  He'll even hold his own bottle and drink from a sippy cup.  The only reason I haven't completely ditched the bottle is that I think he drinks more when someone is feeding him and I find the bottle easier.  Plus, I enjoy those few minutes throughout the day when I get to curl up with him while I give him a bottle. 

Something else that's impressed me on the feeding front is that he can drink from a cup.  Since he was probably six months old, he's been wanting to take sips of water from my glass if he sees me drinking.  Now I pour a little bit of water in a small plastic cup and let him hold it and lift it to his mouth while I gently hold the bottom of the cup so he doesn't drop it.  I learned the hard way that while he's got the whole drinking from a cup thing down, like anything else he handles, he drops when he's finished with it. 

Like a lot of babies his age, Soren experiences separation anxiety.  We had a couple of rough weeks at ECFE where he's been really upset when I left and I actually had to pick him up early last week because he never completely settled down.  If he's distracted enough playing, I can maybe leave the living room to go into the kitchen, but if I leave the first floor or try to go to the bathroom, he crawls after me crying.  That all said, his separation anxiety barely registers on the list of things that are stressing me out.  There's usually so much chaos and commotion going on at my house that Soren crying because I left the room is drowned out by all the other noise.  But it's also because his separation anxiety is no where near as bad as what Oliver went through.  For months I was the only person Oliver would let hold him and at 12 months, although he'd gotten used to certain family members, he SCREAMED if I left his sight.   

Despite his separation anxiety and mom's ability to comfort him instantly, he's forming quite the attachment to Chris too.  It's often that I'm holding him and he sees his daddy and leans toward him wanting to be held.  He still lights up and makes a beeline for the back door when he hears Chris come home. 

As of press time, Soren stood on his own for the first time, but that was after we propped him up on his feet.  He hasn't gone from sitting to standing without holding onto anything and I'm not sure if his first steps are close or not.  For now it seems he's content with crawling.  He's quite speedy! 

Soren's sleep is going through yet another transition.  Its seems like we'd just gotten used to a great routine of Soren taking a nap first thing in the morning and then napping again when Oliver naps in the afternoon.  The timing of the naps was about as good as it can get when you have kids of different ages.  However, for the past couple of weeks, we can't count on Soren to take his morning nap, or at least not first thing in the morning like he used to. We understandably really hope his afternoon nap continues to mirror Oliver's, so our strategy for the time-being is to let him go down when he's tired, even if that's an hour later than usual, but then wake him up by 10 a.m. This not only lets us actually go somewhere in the morning, but also allows him to fall asleep for his afternoon nap around noon when Oliver goes down.

Soren continues to have a healthy appetite and enjoys a wider variety of foods than your average baby, but I expect that to change as he speeds towards toddlerhood.  And maybe his good nature relationship in food is starting to change.  Just a few days ago he started throwing food off his tray.  Even if he wasn't hungry or didn't like whatever we gave him, he usually sat contently in his booster seat and often would eventually eat.  Not so much anymore.  A couple times now he's immediately thrown everything off his tray as soon as I sat him down.  I'm better prepared with a response this time around and if he throws food, I assume he's not hungry and I take his tray away.