Happy Birthday Soren

Soren turning two years old is especially nostalgic because Oliver was the same age when Soren was born.  I look at Soren and think he looks younger than I remembered Oliver at two.  But perhaps that's because, expecting a new baby, I saw Oliver older than he actually was.  He was about to become a big brother and as much as I had wanted him to stay a baby, I also needed him to grow up.  So Soren's second birthday, an otherwise exciting and joying time, triggered a sense of feeling off, like something was  missing.  At this point in my life, as my youngest ascends from baby to toddler, I felt like I should be bringing a new baby into the world, just as I had when Oliver was two. 

With no new baby to come after him, Soren's second birthday was bittersweet.  I've always called Soren my little baby, but as I kissed him goodnight on the night before his birthday, I realized that was probably the last time I could call him that. 

While I was feeling pretty sappy and nostalgic that night, I woke up excited the next morning.  I had taken the morning off work so I could do something fun with Soren to mark his birthday.  I was thankful I had those few hours off since Oliver's birthday had fallen on a Sunday and he had gotten a weekend's worth of birthday celebration with mom and dad and other family. 

After dropping Oliver off at preschool, we took the bus downtown to the Science Museum.  Soren loves trucks, buses, cars and trains, so riding on a bus was quite a treat!  I really think he enjoyed that more than the museum.  We spent the rest of the morning taking in the sights of downtown, running up and down the sidewalks, watching the boats and trains pass by along the river and even taking in some of the museum, our original destination.  Time flew and we hopped back on the bus to Oliver's preschool. 

Birthdays are a time for reflection and I look at Soren and see a kid with tons of personality and his own interests.  Here's a boy who loves to dance and clap his hands. Soren got a CD player and a CD of kids dance music for his birthday and he started clapping his hands and stomping a foot when he saw what was underneath the wrapping paper.  We plugged in the CD player and Soren danced in circles until he was too dizzy to dance anymore.  I always listen to the radio in the car and sometimes a song will move him to bop his head and clap his hands.  He moves to the music like no one's watching.

Soren is really getting into pretend play and especially likes mimicking what he sees mom and dad do, like cooking or cleaning.  He got play kitchen for his birthday and loves it!  It drives me nuts that a pretend kitchen has been deemed a "girl" toy by toy marketers and that it's difficult to find one not splashed in pink.  But obviously Soren doesn't care about the color. I joke that both my kids are man enough to take on pink, and in all honesty, the pastels of Soren's new kitchen do complement the greys and whites of our basement walls quite well. 

Soren is saying a ton of words - more than I can count - and is still working on combining two words together for some semblance of a sentence.  Who knows if "Daddy work" means "Daddy is at work," "Daddy went to work" or "Daddy is going to work," but it's clear from his emotions that he misses Chris and knows he's at work. 

A lot of the words he says are a result of our direct conversation with him, as opposed to words that he says to us initiated on his own.  But it's clear he knows what he's talking about instead of just completely mimicking us.  Sometimes we go out to eat on a Friday evening and since it was Soren's birthday, we decided to let him pick.  Of the two kid-friendly restaurants we often go to, one is a pizza place and the other has mac and cheese on the menu.  So we asked Soren if he wanted pizza or mac and cheese and to our surprise, he answered us.  "Pizza!" he exclaimed with a smile. Since Oliver was lobbying hard for the mac and cheese, we asked Soren again and a third time and his answer was always pizza.  So that's what the birthday boy got. 

My kids' birthdays always trigger raw memories of their births and as I was getting Soren ready for bed the night before his birthday, I remembered two years before being in labor and wondering who this new son of mine was going to be.  Of course I could have played over in my head all possible scenarios for who this new little baby was going to be and still couldn't have imagined such a sweet, beautiful and loving boy.   

This will be the last of my monthly Soren updates.  It's not to say I won't post any more updates, just not on a regular basis.  It's been a joy to write about Soren's growth and development and I'm thankful I have this record of his first two years of life since they change so much at this stage.