On the Road Again

It's no secret that Karl and I love road trips. When we don't have a trip to look forward to, we get a little antsy. We love planning the trips and we're proud of ourselves when we can push ourselves to get to our destination without having to stop to rest. Some of our best memories are from exploring the world (or at least the Unites States) from inside of our car.

Ever since Sören came around, we've been anxious to see if he would share our love for the road. For the first time since he's been born, we had the opportunity to hit the road with him this Thanksgiving.

To sum it up, the trip to Washington was a bit hellish. Sören caught Karl's cold the night before we left, so none of us were rested for the trip ahead. The next night in the hotel room, Sören woke every 20 minutes. So between Karl and I, we probably got about 2 hours of sleep. Between stopping to feed Soren and the "day before Thanksgiving" traffic jams, the total time it took us to get from SLO to Seattle was 25 hours - that's almost 10 hours more than it was "supposed" to take.

Once we arrived at Karl's brother's house, we were able to relax and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with family, tour Seattle (a small part of it) and visit our friends, the Wilkes (whose backyard is shown here), on Vashon Island. Sören was able to get acquainted with his cousins and meet his Grandpa Lundeen and aunt and uncle for the first time too!

All in all, we had a great time in the Pacific Northwest - it's definitely our kind of place. Sören, however, would have preferred to be in his own crib, in his own house. We're definitely not going to give up on road trips, we're just going to plan realistically in the future.

There's a First Time for Everything

Last night we had dinner with our friends Ryan & Sarah. They are the kind of friends that you can descend upon with little warning and they will graciously make you a delicious meal, hold interesting conversation and not make you feel bad for leaving early to do homework. They also have a 5-month-old baby (born a week after Soren), so that makes hanging out even more fun!

Here's a picture of Soren and his friend Hattie at 6-weeks-old; taking their baby naps together on the Miller's couch...


Lately Soren has been VERY interested in watching people eat and he tries desperately to get a grip on anything we are about to consume. I have wanted to hold him off from eating solid food until he reached 6 months, so that his digestive system has some time to mature a little more. After weeks of watching him reach out for our food as we eat, I decided very spontaneously that I would let him try some solid food last night. I had some very yummy avocado in the salad Sarah made for us, and I held it out for Soren to try. He grabbed my hand and shoved it in his mouth. What happened next amazed me......he loved it!!! I think the key is reading your baby's cues and not going with a one-size-fits-all approach to feeding (and everything else for that matter.) Soren was ready for something more in his life and for the next week, that something will be some delicious and nutritious avocado!

Thanks to Sarah, I have a picture of his first bites...


And if you thought I was done with the "firsts", you're mistaken! (I'll make this one brief.) I had a dream last night that I was listening to Kelly Ripa (what can I say...it was a dream) talk about her baby sleeping through the night. In that dream I was thinking to myself, "Wouldn't that be nice" or "Maybe someday." I awoke a couple minutes later to the sound of the monitor relaying the sound of little feet softly kicking. This is when I know Soren is up. I looked at the clock and it read 7:55am. I suddenly realized that my little man had been sleeping for 12 hours - straight!! This is quite a monumental occasion for a mom who can't remember the last time she slept the whole night through. I tried to capture a picture of my well-rested baby in his crib and somehow jacked the camera up in the process, so the pictures I took are blurry. You can still get the idea of how happy he is with himself...


OK, my apologies to anyone who made it through that whole post and isn't a parent or who doesn't care about babies. I know that must have been hard to get through.

Family Photos

So, ever since we got married 6.5 years ago, we have gotten just a handful of pictures of the two of us. Needless to say, we were in desperate need of some good pictures where we were both in the same frame! Now that we have added to our family with one perfect photo subject (if I do say so myself), it was clear that now was the time. Our amazingly talented friend Ken so kindly offered to take pictures of our family to build up his photography portfolio. We eagerly accepted.

Here's what happened after that...

Catch Up

So, it's painfully obvious that we need to spruce up our blog, but I've wasted way too much of my Saturday trying with no luck to find a cool layout. (Any suggestions would be appreciated!) Instead of waiting until this blog is perfect, I thought I'd start posting/sharing so you can be updated on our lives. Sören is just growing too fast to wait around for blog perfection. Here are a few highlights from Soren's life so far...

• Rolls over on September 18 (15 weeks old)
• Up on elbows and knees and ready for take off on October 29th (almost 5 months old)
  
• Gets his first 2 teeth (lower) the next day
  
• Gets 2 more teeth 2 days later (yes, it's been rough)

So as you can see, things have been changing fast around here! Here are some recent pictures of our life. At this point I am unable to capture the elusive new teeth...Soren is more interested in biting on anything that comes close to his mouth than smiling for the camera.

Say Hello

Welcome to our first blog as a family of 3....well, 4 if you count Violet.

If you know us at all, you know that we are the WORST at keeping in touch. We are hoping that we'll be able to redeem ourselves just a little with this semi-regular journal of our lives.

Sören still doesn't have a baby journal, so this will mostly be a journal of his life. If babies bore you, we suggest finding another, more exciting blog to read. However, if you happen to like babies, and more specifically, Sören, then this blog will be sure to please!