Soren at 3.75

Now that I no longer write the "Letters to Soren" I feel like I've lost the only way I was documenting anything in Soren's life. So here are some points of interest on our funny son for those who are interested, but mainly so I don't forget.

This month, Soren started attending Primary during church along with a dozen of his fellow three year olds. So far he seems to be enjoying it and handling the change pretty well. He gets a little sad when when he doesn't get called on every time, but such is the life of an only-child know it all. He was super excited about wearing a tie to church just like Logan and looked adorably grown up.

Since Christmas he has become completely obsessed with Legos and for the first time in his life, he will willingly go play in his room for extended periods of time. It's glorious and well worth having to pick up all the teeny tiny pieces and the large amount of time I spend putting various weapons in those mini hands or pulling helmets off the tiny little heads. 

We got him a new bigger bed and his previous sleep issues have pretty much been solved. He loves his new room and still, 3 months later excitedly asks any one who comes to our house if they want to see his NEW! ROOM!  Even people who have already seen the room several times. 

Soren is super smart and says things all the time that surprise me. He's always asking what words mean. I've been feeling like I need to brush up on my SAT vocabulary. He's very chatty and will often make small talk like someone well beyond his years. Like when he came and sat down by us and asked "So, Mom and Dad, what was your favorite part of Lisa's party?" Recent funny expressions that have found their way into his vocabulary are: "Aww, nuts!" "What the!" "Pause it back on" (which means to un-pause something), "That reminds me..." or "Speaking of..." (like the time he said, "Mom, say Red Tornado" I oblige and say "Red Tornado" he says, "Speaking of Red Tornado...").

He is loving Joy School and has such a good time with his friends. We're sad that we'll be losing a couple of the kids this semester, especially his BFF Charlie who he will miss terribly. He's finally at the point that he can actually play with his friends, instead of just playing near them. I love peaking in on them when they are playing and getting a little glimpse into the imaginary worlds they've created.

Soren is a charming and hilarious 3 year old, though he's still a 3 year old. Everything is a negotiation and he's constantly telling us what his deal is. He wants everything to be dark blue. He tries his hardest to get me to do everything for him, and I try my hardest to resist. Together we're working on him becoming more independent.

He's a remarkable little boy who makes me laugh everyday. People young and old are automatically drawn to him, and it's hard to blame them. He's pretty great. 

Sneak Peak: Soren's NEW ROOM

I know I promised photos of our big room switch and re-do but I'm not quite ready to reveal it since I've been delayed by projects not coming out as planned. Such as the art I made for Soren's room using Charlie Harper alphabet flashcards. They looked great for a couple days, then the cards started to fall. For the first time ever, double stick tape has failed me. When Soren saw it he said: "Aw nuts, now I can't learn my ABC's." I'm looking for a more secure solution and will hopefully be able to share photos of the completed rooms soon. 

"The year is dying in the night, ring out wild bells, and let him die"

Today I was wondering if I'd set any resolutions at the beginning of 2011, and apparently I did in my head but didn't feel the need to write them down.  Of the couple I alluded to in my blog post last year, I suppose I completed since I did take vitamins (it didn't say I had to take them every day...) and Soren has long since been totally potty trained. But I think since this year was unexpectedly rocky, it is hard to feel like any goals I may have set were accomplished. 

It's no secret that 2011 was pretty rough. We are quickly approaching the 1 year anniversary of our current round of job-lessness which is really hard to wrap my head around. As 2010 came to a close we were full of hope and anticipation for the year ahead thinking things were finally getting better. I thought we'd happy cruise through the year- maybe take a trip or two to help us recover from a hard year and probably have a baby. Then obviously that all got put on hold. We've struggled and cried a lot this year. Tears of sadness for those that we love and tears of frustration that life isn't what we thought it would be. But despite all that, there were a lot of really great things that happened this year. 

Though it ended up it not really being as enjoyable as I anticipated, I will be proud to remember that I wrote for Apartment Therapy this year. (One of my posts was even the 6th most popular post of 2011, which is pretty cool.) A couple of our very best friends will be blessed with more babies that we can count, and a some of them even managed to defy all medical odds. We fostered an adorably sweet cat (with the equally adorable Soren-given name of ABCDEFG) for a few weeks, which surely earned us some major karma. Soren and I spent a couple weeks in Mississippi soaking up some sun and taking care of my sick mom. Again, more karma, right? I trained for and completed an actual running race which felt like a major accomplishment. Soren completed his first semester of Joy School with great success. He LOVES it and I love all his friends and the other mothers who love and teach these 5 little students along with me. 

So, despite the obvious set backs, 2011 hasn't been all bad. We've been able to spend a lot of time together. We've been able to reevaluate what is and isn't important and essential in our life. Brita filters, real maple syrup, pine nuts, a rug in our living room, hair cuts = things I've learned to live with out. Friends and family who love and support us, living somewhere we love and feeling like we're part of a community, having the internet in my pocket, buying fancy mascara every so often = things that are key to my survival. 

Now we face another year and I have a lot of hopes for 2012. Hope that we can move on from this hard year. Hope that we can finally feel secure and happy. Hope that we can find a job that keeps us in our home and this city that we'd be heartbroken to leave. Hope that we can add another person to this home some day soon. Hope that our dear friends will find peace. Hope that when we look back on 2011 we'll think about the wonderful things that did happen, despite the suffocatingly hard year that it was. Bring it, 2012. I'm ready. 

Since I'm not sure what else to do with this list...

In an effort to encourage myself to read more books in 2011, I had a completely ridiculous goal to read as many books and as movies I watched. I soon realized that how unlikely that was, but kept track of the year's books and movies all the same. I watched just over 2 movies for every book I read, which I guess isn't so bad when you think about it. Though I didn't count any TV I watched (other than movies on TV) but we watched a few complete TV series in 2011 (Modern Family, Battlestar Galactica, The IT Crowd, Avatar...) so my screen to book ratio is way, way worse than this makes it seem. I chose not to count any of the kids movies (or books for that matter) of 2011, but I'd be curious (or maybe horrified) to know how that would change the balance.  Anyway,  here it is: 

Books of 2011:

Rebecca

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Room
The Girl Who Played With Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
The History of Love
Breaking Night
Eat Pray Love
The Walking People
The Poisonwood Bible
Olive Kitteridge
Play it As it Lays
The Time Travelers Wife
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
The Curse of Chalion
The Gardner Heist
The Demon King
The Exiled Queen
A Study in Scarlet
Children of Men
Water for Elephants
Cinderella Ate My Daughter
The Grey Wolf Throne

Movies of 2011:

Inception

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 (theater)
Knight & Day
An Education
Goal!
Roxanne
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The Social Network
Tongan Ninja
Amelie
Inside Job
The Fighter
500 Days of Summer
Easy A
World’s Fastest Indian
The King’s Speech
Fever Pitch (1997 British version)
It’s Kind Of a Funny Story
I Love You, Man
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Looking for Eric
Super 8 (Theater)
X men first class (Theater)
Ghost Town
Sunshine Cleaning
The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Help (Theatre)
The Business of Being Born
Eat Pray Love
Crazy Stupid Love (Theatre)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (Theatre)
Secret of Kells
Jane Eyre
The Time Travelers Wife
Waitress
Iron Man 2
Zombieland
True Grit (2010)
Invictus
True Grit (1969)
Fantastic Mr fox
Thor
Adventureland
Good Fellas
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Morning Glory
District 9
Pelada
Fire in the Sky
Revolutionary Road

I'm trying to decide what arbitrary thing to keep track of in 2012. The current front runner is things Soren declares he wants to be for Halloween but I'm open to suggestions.

"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night"

And now the moment you've been waiting for all year- our annual Official Christmas Loot Photo! As usual, you can click on the photo to go to the original on Flickr where you can mouse over everything to see what it is. We have had a wonderful Christmas and have many very generous people to thank for making our Christmas such a good day. 

I hope you all have had happy days with friends and family.  More details soon on all the festivities. Merry Christmas!

Mischief Managed

In what surely is a personal record, I have all my gifts purchased, wrapped and shipped off to their recipients and it's not even Christmas Eve yet!  (Yes, family, even all our made gifts! Amazing!) Let the grocery shopping, baking and partying begin! 

Making Christmas Dreams Come True

Remember when Soren asked to be Darth Vader for Christmas? He pulled it off pretty well. Pirate flag/cape and backpack were his ideas. Hood, balaclava and flash light were ours. It was much better in person; the photo doesn't capture the heavy breathing. We should start taking requests for other Star Wars costumes he can pull together. The force is strong with this one. 

Merry Christmas From the Wangsgards

Things are tight in our house this Christmas and we have to cut back wherever we can. So this will have to do for our family photo this year. 

But we pretty much look the same as last year so you're not missing much. Here's to a very happy Christmas and a (hopefully) much better New Year. For real this time.

Thanks to Gwen for the tasty and adorable gingerbread family.

A Very Joy School Christmas

Soren had his Joy School Christmas Party last week and looked smashing in the nativity. The did it twice to give all the kids a chance to be different charters so Soren was Joseph and one of the Wisemen. 

A big thanks to Jenn for putting the party together and to Terese for taking photos. 

Countdown to Christmas

I know I haven't been blogging as much lately, but no, I did not have a baby and keep it a secret. This is Gus, our adorable little friend who wasn't a big fan of Santa. (Who is a man from our church who grows a real Santa beard every year just for the big day. Talk about commitment.) 

We still haven't decided how we feel about Santa, but Soren seems to be giving us a break and hasn't asked any impossible questions; so we're just going to leave it be for now.