Some Awesome Soren Milestones!

(originally from an email--the pics were too big to make it through to certain folks, so replicated here) 

Hi friends, 

These are some BIG, incredibly exciting Soren milestones that have been happening in the past few days--I wanted to share them with you!

From 8/1 to 8/3, Soren all of sudden started sitting up consistently on his own!  We have been working with him for a very long time so that he would be able to do this, so it is a HUGE deal!  It means he can go from prone to mobile on his own.  In the morning and after naps, he sits up to wait for us to come get him.  He often sits up and then claps for himself if we are in his presence, because we have been doing that for so long as we have helped him.  It's very cute! 

Soren also became incredibly verbal over the past couple of weeks, mimicking just about all sounds or trying:

• "Ha-oom-pra" was one that really surprised me because of it's three syllables!  (Elephant sound, by the way).
• "Splash!" is pretty clear.
• "Jesus"  I had just got him to start signing this a week before, but he actually said it while we were reading a story.
• "op-op-op", a frog sound that he anticipated (not just mimicked, but remembered in a book when we came to that page).
• "weow" for the cat sound
• copied my "ruff" for a dog sound rather than his usual cough.
• tried to make a "k" sound in the back of his throat by kind of coughing.
• can do one and two syllable b- and m-words all day long.  :)
• "bzzz" for bee sounds and says "bee" too
• "ssss" for snake
• and many more.

And this is besides a bunch of signs he's got nailed down:

• mama, baba, water, milk, eat/food, sleep/bed, more, dance, music, bicycle, motorcycle, tree, book, bird, "called the doctor and the doctor said", head, ear, nose, eye, fingers, toes, hair, Jesus, egg, flower, bath, teeth (see him signing this with me in one of the attached pics).  All of these words he recognizes by their sound and he signs them, and a few of them he can do on his own without hearing them. 

And Sunday evening, Soren and I had the most hilarious and awesome dance party in our living room.  I danced all over the place, and Soren scooted around on his butt and waved his arms around too--sometimes doing these super cute little 360 degree turns that made me and Betsy laugh so much.  It was such a picture of joy and exercise!  About the latter, I'm sure it is the most exercise I have ever seen him get--he just couldn't get enough of it, until he was hot, red, and sweaty, and starting to worry his Mama a little bit.  Even after I sat down to cool off in front of the fan, he kept going, scooting around to the music, waving his hands, and coming over to (I think) encourage me to keep going.

I wanted to share this update with you so that you can share these milestones and joys with us that we've been patiently waiting for!  What an awesome, beautiful, smart little kid we've got, who fills our lives up to the top with joy.  Thank you God!  The next big thing will be standing.  Here we go!

Oh, and because everyone is asking, he's been a champ with Leem.  :)


Love, Philip