Soren Update: 23 Months

Soren turns two next month and I've found myself referring to him as a baby more often.  I know I have limited time to be able to get away with that and I'm enjoying talking about my baby while I can.  Because babies don't have expanding vocabularies and climb to the top of the slide at the playground or try to ride their big brother's bike. 

Just recently we noticed that Soren is stringing two words together, like "Mommy go," when I leave the house or "more please."  You can hear the development of sentence structure and grammar.  There's still so much that I'm sure he knows how to say, whether in English or Portuguese, that we just don't realize he's saying.  A lot still sounds like babble unless it's in context and you're really paying attention. 

If it weren't fall, we'd consider getting Soren a bike with training wheels.  Oliver's 16-inch bike is way too big for Soren, but he shows interest in riding it and trying to peddle even though his feet don't reach.  While in Ocean City, we had rented Oliver a bike to so he could peddle to and from the beach instead of having to walk.  Sometimes that would be too tiring and he'd want to ride in the stroller.  But we hadn't brought the double stroller, so we set Soren on top of the bike and I'd pull the bike down the sidewalk by the handle bars while Soren gripped the handles like he was riding a motorcycle and propped his feet on the bottom of the frame.  He was thrilled!

Soren has been just as adventurous on the playground as he was riding on two wheels.  He's started climbing ladders on the playground and is only limited by his size in how high or what he'll climb.  He'll otherwise try to get up onto whatever you'll let him.  At least he's still into tamer playground activities, like digging in the sand and relaxing in a bucket swing. 

As Soren's gross motor skills improve, he's losing his "penguin" run, which makes me sad.  It was kind of a funny, but cute run, where he ran with his arms pointed straight down and his hands back.  Combine that with the toddler, straight-legged run, and well, he toddled like a penguin.  I thought maybe only I had noticed the penguin resemblance until my nanny and her Brazilian friends admitted they had nicknamed him pinguim. 

Soren is still a reasonably adventurous eater.  He might pout a little or look unexcited about what is for dinner, but he'll probably eventually try it.  He's not as enthusiastic about beans anymore, but still loves tofu.  And I can usually count on him to at least try a few bites of whatever random meals I serve up from my stash of meal exchange dinners.  Still, his favorites are your usual toddler staples - peanut butter toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, waffles, fruit, yogurt, snacks of any kind, and anything sweet.  One of his first words was "Cake!"  He loves cake so much that when our nanny told Oliver or Soren that they could either stay home with daddy or come with her to the bakery to pick up a cake for her husband's birthday, (she also promised to buy them a slice) Oliver chose to stay home and Soren dropped what he was doing, grabbed his shoes and booked to the front door.

For all the energy Soren has, he loves chilling out in the stroller for a long walk.  We still can't touch the stroller without Soren losing it until he can get in it.  Once he does, though, he's such a happy kid.