Soren Update: January 2014

Soren is such a live wire. Though he can be, ahem, challenging, I just love being his mama.  He never ceases to delight and entertain.

Some highlights from the past three months:

*It was the first Sunday in January.  We had just gotten home from church.  Soren hit Liam, then fled to the kitchen.  I first comforted Liam, then followed the unexpected sound of Soren's sobs.  I found him sitting on the kitchen bench, face buried in his knees.  "Soren?  What's wrong?"  Wordlessly, Soren held up his hand.  On his ring finger was the CTR ring he'd gotten in church that day.  I scooped his little body into my lap and pulled him close.  "It's okay, sweetie," I told him.  "We all make mistakes.  That's why Jesus came."  He pressed his head against my chest and continued to cry.  

*Soren has decorated the area above his bed.  His decor includes a family photo, a picture of the temple, a painting of Jesus, a stick figure drawing by his friend Evan, two pictures that he drew of the two of us together, a photo of him as a baby, and a page from one of his favorite Bernstein bears books.  

*When I pull into the garage after work, Soren's always standing in the doorway, grinning a gap-toothed smile, screaming joyfully, and dancing like a monkey.   

*In Soren's drawings, I have Rapunzel-like hair.

*Soren says "each other" "theirchother."  

*I took the boys to a train show.  Afterwards, I was remarking to my neighbor friend that I was a little surprised at how many old men loved to play with trains.  Soren piped up, "I know, Mommy!  We went in there and I was like, what is this place?  The hospital?"  

*Soren and Liam both ran in the annual Tater Tot trot.  They both ran the whole way--no walking--which made me proud.  Our neighbor Porter, who is Soren's age, won second place in Soren's age group.  When I picked Porter up for our carpool the first school morning after the race (two weeks later), Soren's first comment to him was a very congratulatory: "I'm not surprised you got second place, Porter."  

*One day I told Soren in a sing-songy voice, "Soren, I'm going downstairs!"  He replied back, equally sing-songy, "Ok-ayy!  Why-yy?"  "To do laundry!"  I sing-songed back.  "Have fu-un!" he said.  Then he added, still sing-songy, "Why are we talking in this tone?"  

Baking a cake.

*Soren does this crazy rock star imitation that involves screaming the words"rock the world!" repeatedly at top volumes while flailing his body around in frighteningly impossible ways.  

*I nearly fell asleep today listening to Soren orate at length about the skills of his "Karate Cars" and how they measured up to each other.  

A house that Soren made for his cars.  Note the night-light bulb suspended from the desk.

*Soren tripped on our hardwood stairs and knocked his two front teeth loose.  After three hours of high-volume screaming (Abe called it "the end of the world by decibels") and three days of him looking like a wild-eyed scraggle-toothed hillbilly, the teeth finally came out.  The tooth fairy made two visits and he left her a couple of very nice notes.  One said, "Ilufeuthoothfray," and the other read, "U are nice."  I love his little Jack-o-Lantern smile.  

Look Ma!  No teeth!

*Soren's developed a love for money.  He managed-- through doing chores, digging up change in the guest room at Grandma's house, and losing two teeth-- to acquire a bulk savings of $10.00.  He was very excited and went around telling anyone who would listen: "I have ten bucks."  

*I taught Soren how to make an animated story using a book of sticky notes.  He spent hours making a couple of hilarious little animations that involved a lot of violence, counter violence, and explosions between stick figures.  

*A joke:  "What's a pig mixed with an oven?  A hot dog!  Hahahaha!"

*At night I give the boys piggy-back rides to their beds.  On this particular evening, Soren had already been deposited in his bed, but must have been lying there listening while I galloped around with Liam, running in the kitchen ("Oops!  This isn't your bedroom!), then into the bathroom ("Oops!  This isn't your bedroom!), then into my bedroom ("Oops!  This isn't your bedroom!).  When I finally came in to drop off his giggling brother, Soren exclaimed warmly, "Oooh!  I just love family!"

*Instead of "or else," Soren says, "or nelse."  

Demonstrating a back scratcher he crafted out of Trios.  

*One day, after studying for his spelling test, Soren told me that when people see a blue whale, they would describe it as being "very big," with several extra "v"s at the beginning and "46 exclamation points at the end."  

*Soren was so furious at his cousin Marty for throwing a rotten plum in his sister's hair that he attacked him with a Styrofoam sword.  A little aggressive, yes, but the sentiment was nice.   

*Soren is a holiday aficionado.  He was soooo excited about Halloween.  He ran around chattering excitedly and endlessly about all his ideas for Halloween decorations and party activities.  He even set up a spook alley in his room....it included a Jack-o-Lantern bucket with a flashlight illuminating it from the inside, a scarecrow, and a ghost.  

*For Halloween he dressed as a necromancer.  He mostly wanted to be "something really scary," so we came up with this costume.  Briar and Abe declared him a necromancer.  Neither Soren nor I know what a necromancer is.  

*A few weeks before Halloween I bought Soren a new winter coat and a 97 cent pack of Halloween decorations.  He was ecstatic.  "How can I EVER thank you, Mommy?"

*It was his idea to make bone-shaped Halloween pretzels.  

*Though he loves holidays, Soren hates Thanksgiving.  To him, it is nothing but a barrier that stands between Halloween and Christmas decorations.  There was much weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, arm flailing, door kicking, etc. every time his frequent bids for early Christmas decorations were denied.

*Once, after a fight, I heard Soren grumble under his breath, "I wish I could kill Liam for Christmas!"  

*Soren volunteered to teach the FHE lesson one night.  He picked the topic of "kindness" and put on some very dramatic theater shows involving lots of physical violence between puppets and a stick horse and himself.  In between fights, he would stop and ask the rest of us in a very calm voice, "Was that kind?  Or not kind?"  

*Later I was trying to explain to Soren about how Jesus said that we had to forgive people for doing mean things to us not just seven times, but seven time seventy times.  But Soren had a better solution.  "After seven times, I would go get the Duty!"  

*One evening Soren sat down and spent some time practicing "all the things I'm bad at."  Apparently these things include writing 4s, writing Ns, and drawing stars. 

*My sweet friend Rhonda brought us dinner one night after I griped on Facebook about having to clean up barfy messes all morning (Liam).  Soren was deeply touched by this gesture and felt very strongly that none of the food go to waste.  

*Soren comes home from school and tells me excitedly about all about the things they've been learning.  He spends a lot of his free time thinking and talking manically about spelling and math.  

*Sometimes when he's been naughty, Soren will slip a note under my door (or his door, if he's doing penance in there).  It's hard to resist an "I sry Mommy" written in large, scrawling letters.